How extreme weather events are disrupting tourism in SA

Tourism contributes a tremendous amount to our economy, especially in those areas with attractions well-known around the world.

But the increasing frequency of extreme weather events is having an effect on this money spinner, and will continue to do so into the future.

Our coastal areas have borne the brunt of changing weather patterns when it comes to the impact on especially international visitors.

Motheo Khoaripe gets some insight from tourism specialist Lee-Anne Bac, director at consulting firm BDO South Africa.

Bac cites the disruption caused by recent and current weather events, using KwaZulu-Natal coast and the Western Cape as examples.

"With the terrible 2022 floods in KZN, immediate tourism demand was affected and it also had a long-term impact for the rest of the year. That has a lot to do with prolonged infrastructure damage that meant affected facilities were not available. Beaches were not available, there was the ecoli infestation which is a result of the infrastructure damage which is a result of the extreme weather."

"With the drought a couple of years ago in the Western Cape, our team calculated that the province lost between R700m and R1.7 b worth of economic value because of lost tourism."

"Currently in Cape Town, extreme weather means visitors can't go on their trip to Robben Island or up Table Mountain."

Lee-Anne Bac, Director - BDO South Africa

Bac emphasizes that aside from the immediate loss to the local economy, these situations also mean that people are rethinking their travel plans and destinations, which has longer-term ramifications.

People linked to the industry are focusing on all these problems as they try to encourage people to visit South Africa all year round, she says.

"Infrastructure is of particular concern where we've got facilities places built too close to the beaches."

"You can argue that it's historically poor planning or that we didn't see what was going to happen, but the damage to those properties and facilities means that we're going to have to spend capital to upgrade them and fix them, and we'll have to dig into our insurance."

Lee-Anne Bac, Director - BDO South Africa