South Africa is trying to make tourism more than an industry that brings visitors to its beaches, game reserves and cities.
The ambition is to turn it into a broader engine of economic activity, one that brings money into the country, supports businesses far beyond hotels and restaurants and creates opportunities in communities that have traditionally sat outside the main tourism economy.
At the official launch of Tourism Month in Durban on Thursday, Tourism Minister Patricia de Lille highlighted tourism's ability to connect different parts of the economy.
“One journey can therefore support many livelihoods,” she said. “That is why growing tourism must remain part of how we think about growing the South African economy.”
The argument has become more significant as South Africa's tourism industry recovers strongly from the pandemic.
About 10.5 million international tourists visited South Africa in 2025, the highest number on record, according to government. Tourism is estimated to sustain 1.8 million direct and indirect jobs and contribute nearly 9% of the country's GDP.
But, what happens after the visitor arrives?
Does the money reach a township restaurant, a local guide, a craft producer, a transport operator or a small accommodation business? Does a new hotel create demand for local suppliers? Does improved infrastructure built to serve tourists also make life easier for residents?
International evidence suggests that, when properly designed, tourism can have effects well beyond the visitor economy.
A new World Bank review of a decade of tourism-development projects across more than 80 countries found that tourism can stimulate private investment, expand markets for local producers and spread income beyond major cities into rural and coastal communities. It also found that tourism infrastructure, including transport, energy, water, sanitation and digital connectivity, can benefit the wider economy when investment is planned strategically.
That makes the debate about South Africa's tourism industry larger than visitor numbers.
Economic opportunity?
De Lille said government wants tourism to create more opportunities for young people, women, entrepreneurs and SMMEs.
She said South Africans would again be encouraged to take a Sho’t Left in September, whether for a day trip, weekend away or longer journey. Sho’t Left Travel Week will offer discounted packages, while South African Parks Week and provincial Mahala Weeks will provide further opportunities for domestic travel.
The aim is to encourage South Africans to spend more of their leisure money inside the country while making tourism accessible to people who might otherwise be excluded by cost.
But the industry is also undergoing a technological shift that could change who gets discovered.
“Today, many journeys begin on a screen,” De Lille said. “Someone sees a destination on TikTok. Someone watches a travel content creator.”
That matters because digital platforms can potentially put smaller destinations and businesses in front of travellers who might otherwise never encounter them.
De Lille used the example of a township restaurant that could move beyond word of mouth and showcase its offering to thousands of potential visitors.
“Imagine technology helping a traveller build an itinerary that takes them beyond our traditional attractions and introduces them to smaller communities and emerging destinations,” she said.
“The digital transformation of tourism cannot benefit only the large players. It must work for the SMME.”
A new tourism economy is already taking shape
KwaZulu-Natal offers an interesting test of that ambition.
The province is seeking to reposition itself as more than a traditional coastal holiday destination, with new investment adding to its tourism offering.
The R2.1 billion Club Med Tinley project, which opened in July, brings a major international resort brand to the KwaZulu-Natal coast. The development has 345 hotel rooms and 66 villa suites and combines a beachfront resort with access to a private game reserve.
Its significance lies not only in the rooms themselves, but in the network of economic activity that a major destination can generate around them, from transport and food suppliers to attractions, entertainment and smaller businesses.
That is precisely the kind of tourism ecosystem the World Bank says can turn visitor demand into broader local economic development, provided investment is accompanied by infrastructure, effective institutions and strong links to local businesses.
KwaZulu-Natal is also trying to address a fundamental problem: getting visitors to stay longer and travel further.
Rev. Musa Zondi, MEC for Economic Development, Tourism and Environmental Affairs in KwaZulu-Natal, said modern travellers increasingly search online, compare experiences, read reviews, watch content and use digital platforms to plan, book and pay for journeys.
The province's challenge is therefore not simply to attract visitors to Durban or its beaches, but to persuade them to explore more of KwaZulu-Natal and spend money in more communities.
Zondi said the latest figures highlighted the issue. Between January and June 2023, almost 1.5 million international tourists arrived through South Africa's three major international airports, representing 5.7% year-on-year growth. King Shaka International Airport recorded 12,433 international tourist arrivals, compared with 20,218 during the same period a year earlier.
He cautioned that the King Shaka figures do not represent all international tourists visiting KwaZulu-Natal, because some enter South Africa through Johannesburg or Cape Town before travelling to the province.
The battle is increasingly about the whole year
The other shift taking place in South African tourism is seasonality.
Cape Town, traditionally associated with a strong summer tourism season and a quieter winter, is seeing the boundaries between peak and off-peak tourism become less distinct.
The Western Cape has been moving towards a 70/30 split between peak and off-peak tourism, while growing cruise activity and continued domestic travel are helping extend visitor activity beyond the traditional summer months.
That matters because a longer tourism season changes the economics of the industry.
Hotels can operate more consistently. Restaurants and attractions have a larger customer base. Transport operators have more work. Seasonal businesses can become less dependent on a few crucial months.
For a country trying to generate more economic activity without relying solely on mining or manufacturing, that matters.
From destination to economic platform
Zondi believes regional integration can add another layer.
With KwaZulu-Natal hosting the SADC Summit, he said stronger regional cooperation, better air and road connectivity and easier movement between countries could allow visitors to experience Southern Africa as a connected destination rather than as separate national markets.
That would put tourism alongside the broader economic-integration argument increasingly being made about Africa: the opportunity is not simply to attract more foreigners, but to make it easier for people already travelling around the region to move between destinations and spend more along the way.
Heritage Month in September adds another dimension.
Zondi said KwaZulu-Natal wanted South Africans not simply to visit the province but to discover more of it and support local businesses along the way.
That is ultimately the test for the country's tourism strategy.
South Africa does not simply need more tourists. It needs more of the economic value generated by each journey to remain in the country, reach more businesses and extend into more communities.
The World Bank's research suggests that tourism can help achieve that, but it does not happen automatically. Infrastructure, investment, institutions, skills and links between large tourism businesses and local enterprises determine how much of the visitor economy becomes a development economy, the research stated.
South Africa has the attractions. It is now trying to build the economic system around them.
And with international arrivals already at a record, the next phase of the tourism story is less about whether people will come, and more about what the country does with the opportunity when they do.
* World Tourism Day on 27 September will be celebrated in Limpopo.
yogashen.pillay@nationalmg.co.za
THE NATIONAL