Call for 30 charters a week strikes a chord

In an almost euphoric atmosphere at Indaba, few attending were aware of the looming tourism tragedy. Tourism in South Africa has everything going for it except seats. Almost 25 of the 75 scheduled carriers serving the country in 1997 have gone. The rate of growth in passengers using South Africa’s airports has dropped from 10 % a year in 1997 to 2 % over the last two years. Airlines such as British Airways have almost halved the number of economy seats on each flight and only a handful, most notably Lufthansa, have increased capacity. The national carrier has chosen to cut flights to the USA and Australia in a bid to maintain yields by reducing supply. The flights will come back but the yield imperative will keep tourists as the passengers of last resort. Industry leaders TNN spoke to over the Indaba weekend agree that the shortage of seats priced for tourists is the single gravest issue now facing South African tourism. Imperial Holdings’ Carol Scott, City Lodge’s Hans Enderle, Southern Sun’s Richard Weilers, Western Cape Tourism’s Mike Fabricius were among the heavy weights who see the need for government to move to facilitate the entry of non scheduled low-cost airlines. TNN and its sister publications have called for South African Tourism to fast track up to 30 flights a week as the only solution to creating the hundreds of thousands of new jobs tourism could easily provide. Gareth Coleman and his team from Kwa Zulu Natal Tourism have been in the forefront of trying to get direct charters from Europe and the UK in significant numbers since SAA and all but two international airlines made Johannesburg their hub. TNN understands that the major stumbling block has been the R10 to R26 million major tour operators have asked for before committing themselves to mass marketing a South African beach program. Southern Sun says it has enough capacity in Durban to service the first operator to enter the market. TNN has learnt that if KZN can get the charters the Airport Company of South Africa will upgrade the runway. Entrepeneur Hans Enderle had no doubt that the building of several resorts would not be a problem if the province could kick start high volume beach tourism. He agreed that the government would have to come to the party to change regulations before the Mauritius-style resorts that would be needed could be built. Cape Town based aviation consultant and ex airline chief Malcolm Freeman told TNN that if regulations governing non scheduled carriers were changed to facilitate their entry, then European operators would not have to ask for upfront payments to start services. An article in the Journal of Southern African Tourism released at Indaba calls for SA Tourism to sit down with the European operators with major beach programs and establish from them what South Africa must do to be featured on the front page. Freeman believes from his experience recently in Canada, where up to 155 flights a week are operated by non-scheduled carriers out of the UK alone, that South Africa is doing its economy and its unemployed a disservice while it ignores this opportunity. TNN agrees. What is your view? (Use button below) (Dave Marsh)