Growing the number of inbound seats through a national Air Access strategy is next on the agenda to grow tourism to South Africa, Minister of Tourism Patricia de Lille has said. To this end, she will soon be submitting the Air Access Tourism Marketing strategy to Cabinet for approval.
Speaking during a press conference last week to mark her first 100 days in office for the current term, De Lille said one of the key priorities of both the NDP and the Government of National Unity is to grow the number of direct flights to and from South Africa by establishing an Air Access Tourism Marketing arm within SA Tourism as mandated by Cabinet in November 2023.
De Lille said that Air Access, which has not yet recovered to 2019 levels, was an important element of growing tourism.
There is a gap. We need to return to the pre-COVID figures so the Cabinet memo I will be submitting deals with a strategy to fill that gap.
She said for the sector to deliver on the GNU priorities of inclusive growth and job creation the conditions must be created that were conducive to this.
