Marketing new air routes to SA now more urgent than ever

HHonorable Minister of Tourism Patricia de Lille spoke candidly on the final day of Meetings Africa 2025 in Sandton, Johannesburg, as she engaged with representatives from the continent’s aviation industry to better understand the challenges the sector faces in implementing government’s Tourism Route Development Marketing Plan.

“I’m leading this project from the front,” Minister De Lille declared at the start of the engagement session, explaining how government, aviators and the private sector had been discussing the route development strategy since 2012. “We’ve made some great progress, but in this pivotal G20 year, it’s never been more urgent that we act on improving air access to our country and be the enablers of growing tourism.”

With partnerships in mind, our Government of National Unity (GNU) has identified and recognised the power of business tourism to drive economic transformation, not only in our country but also on the continent.

Using tech to break down barriers

To cement our reputation as a gateway to Africa, the government is committed to breaking down barriers to entry for business travellers to South Africa through digital transformation and we are introducing a critical trifecta of visa enhancements to facilitate smoother access.

The Trusted Tour Operators Scheme (TTOS) simplifies group visa applications from key markets like India and China – we have already given accreditation to 65 tour operators to date, with plans to grow this number to 150 by December 2025.

The Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA), to be introduced later this year will facilitate smoother travel to our shores as it has an application turnaround time of 72 hours.

Finally, the Digital Nomad Visa will attract long-stay business travellers and professionals who prefer to work remotely.

“The government creates the conditions and the environment for airlines to do business, so to grow tourism, we can’t do it alone – we need to harness the power of collaboration to increase air connectivity into and out of South Africa, and domestically,” she explained. “As a country, we can’t just trade on our ‘looks’ anymore. We have great beauty in our country, but when it comes to attracting travellers, we’ve got a lot of competition out there and we can’t afford to be complacent.”

Identifying opportunities and challenges

“Over the years we’ve learnt that it’s not always easy to fly around Africa and we need to change that – it’s a great opportunity to grow tourism. In doing so, we must also remember that the world owes us nothing, so we need to make a point of marketing ourselves better,” Minister De Lille said, adding that the Route Development Marketing Plan has identified 25 markets in which we want to win; 17 are growth markets and eight are ones we need to defend.

She believes that growing the sector together will take a coordinated effort between aviation sector players, government, private/public partnerships and regional and national air access committees. “The time to move on this is now and we can’t afford to work by trial and error,” Minister De Lille said. “We need to learn from others’ examples and do it right the first time.”

The Minister then opened the floor to representatives from the sector, including among others our national carrier South African Airways, Airports Company South Africa, the Board of Airline Representatives South Africa (BARSA), to hear what challenges they face in their efforts to secure new routes and move people and cargo across borders.

Key takeaways from the session

The discussion highlighted that the good use of resources is key to securing and marketing new routes, and good partnerships will be imperative to push the plan forward.

Support from the whole government and South African Tourism is also pivotal to success. South Africa is already seen as the gateway to Africa and that will attract airlines wanting to expand their reach, but we also need to make the process easier for travellers passing through our country in transit.

“We are committed to do all we can to encourage growth in the sector and exciting times lie ahead. Forward ever, backward never!” concluded De Lille.

Ends.

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