Why Tourism Is Key To Job Creation

Western Cape Premier Alan Winde emphasises the positive impact of tourism on creating jobs and ensuring the safety, dignity and wellbeing of residents in the province.

- Alan Winde

On 22 October, I delivered a speech to the Western Cape Provincial Parliament that detailed the recovery plan for the province. That plan rests on three pillars; namely jobs, safety and dignity and wellbeing.

All three of these pillars are interconnected: increased unemployment levels can lead to higher crime rates. Similarly, those who have jobs also have the dignity that comes with being able to provide for themselves and their families. Those who have experienced crime will know the impact that not feeling safe can have on their dignity.

The tourism sector is an important partner for us in helping to achieve these goals. Over the years the Western Cape Government has worked hard to create an enabling environment for job creation. A large part of our focus has been on growing and supporting our tourism and hospitality sectors, because of their potential for job creation, especially in the more rural parts of our province.

Through initiatives like Cape Town Air Access, which has focused on growing the number of direct flights to the Western Cape, and the Red Tape Reduction Unit, which has worked to cut red tape that hinders business and investment, the province started to show real success in growing this sector. In 2015, it welcomed just under 15 million tourists. By 2019, we had grown this number to 20 million.

And we did this despite massive headwinds, which impacted the tourism sector, including strict visa regulations that negatively impacted travel, as well as the drought, which had a severe impact on visitor numbers.