South African tourism: An historic evaluation of macro tourism policies

Abstract

Since shrugging off the shackles of apartheid, and becoming a world player in the tourism sphere, various government policies have been introduced to place South Africa at the forefront of long-haul travel. Three major pieces of legislation: in 1992, 1996 and 2005, have led to successful re-structuring of the South African tourism industry, such that three sporting world cups, namely Rugby, Cricket and Soccer, and numerous other sporting, cultural and business events have successfully been hosted in the country. Macro policies governing tourism at the national level have been introduced to stimulate and guide tourism growth in such a way that the public at large can benefit. Furthermore, such policies have been introduced to benefit tourism growth and to monitor the negative impacts on the South African tourism industry. The World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) did a major investigation of this industry, and proposed guidelines for effective policies to be introduced. This report followed the 1996 White Paper on Tourism Development, and contributed largely to the 2005 Strategic Policy framework. This discussion paper analyses the main the principle findings of the WTTC report.