With South Africa’s energy landscape undergoing significant transformation, a new economic opportunity is emerging in a place few had considered seriously before: tourism.
At a recent high-level discussion hosted by Nedbank and the NEPAD Business Foundation, under the auspices of the SADC Tourism Alliance, key stakeholders across industry and corporates explored how tourism can significantly mitigate the socio-economic impacts of South Africa’s Just Energy Transition (JET).
“Tourism’s value extends far beyond hospitality – it’s about rebuilding communities, revitalising local economies, and creating scalable economic opportunities in precisely the regions hardest hit by the transition away from coal,” noted Natalia Rosa, Project Lead for the SADC Tourism Alliance.
Currently, tourism plays a vital yet often overlooked role in multiple sectors across the South African economy. The sector directly influences around 12% of national vehicle purchases, largely through the car rental industry, and accounts for 12–15% of all retail purchases nationally.
Tshifhiwa Tshivhengwa, CEO of the Tourism Business Council of South Africa (TBCSA), and interim chair of the SADC Tourism Alliance, highlighted concrete evidence of tourism’s capacity to stimulate economic renewal, citing Limpopo’s Nandoni Dam as a prime example. Originally an infrastructure project, the dam catalysed significant economic activity, evolving fishing communities into vibrant hubs of hospitality businesses and guesthouses.
Structured tourism-focused enterprise development programmes are already making an impressive impact across South Africa. Akash Singh, CEO of Sigma International, illustrated how his organisation currently supports between 300–500 businesses nationwide, including tour operators, catering services, and various local enterprises. Singh also highlighted the powerful role of digital technology, including AI, in enabling rural entrepreneurs, especially women, to develop competitive businesses without leaving their communities.
Practical success stories from major corporations underscore tourism’s economic promise:
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- City Lodge Hotel Group has successfully incubated 47 SMEs, with 16 already integrated into their national supply chains, providing critical services such as waste management and landscaping.
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- Anglo American’s Zimele programme, in partnership with Sigma International, effectively demonstrates mining-tourism collaboration. It supports over 22,000 jobs and has issued over R500 million in small business loans, achieving an extraordinary 92% recovery rate.
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- Nedbank’s Women in Tourism programme has directly facilitated more than 1,600 jobs across nine provinces. These enterprises have significantly expanded their operations, secured additional finance and grants, and formed valuable joint ventures.
One of the most critical insights from these discussions is tourism’s unique positioning at the intersection of Enterprise and Supplier Development (ESD) and Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) mandates. This convergence makes the sector increasingly attractive to corporate investors aiming to achieve meaningful social and environmental impact alongside sustainable business growth.
Moving forward, participants advocated for establishing a dedicated Tourism-JET Working Group to actively coordinate efforts, scale successful programmes, and foster deeper collaboration between private and public sectors.
“If we genuinely seek a Just Energy Transition, tourism must be central to the conversation. It provides exactly the kind of inclusive, scalable economic foundation we need to build future resilience,” Rosa concluded.
The Nedbank/Nepad Business Foundation Networking Forum is a collaborative initiative of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (Nepad) Business Foundation (NBF) and Nedbank. It serves as a strategic platform to foster dialogue, partnerships, and actionable solutions aimed at driving inclusive and sustainable economic and social development across the African continent. As a key proponent of Africa’s growth agenda, the NBF is dedicated to advancing initiatives that promote long-term prosperity and resilience for communities and businesses alike.
This strategic forum was also supported by the Joint Action NaturAfrica / Climate Resilience and Natural Resource Management (C-NRM) Programme, co-funded by the European Union (EU) and the German Government and implemented by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH.
