Government cuts Department of Tourism’s budget to fund relief efforts

DURBAN – The struggling tourism industry was dealt a blow yesterday as the government cut its budget allocation to the Department of Tourism to fund the country’s coronavirus relief efforts.

Tourism Minister Mmamoloko Kubayi-Ngubane said budget consolidation across all departments would affect some tourism programmes, as the government wanted to release funds to deal with the Covid-19 pandemic.

“Part of our budget allocation is for marketing and market access programmes wherein we fund small businesses to access local and global markets,” Kubayi-Ngubane said. “With the collapse of both the supply and the demand side of the tourism market, we have agreed that the funds allocated to both these programmes be reallocated to fund health where there is a greater need in this period.”

Finance Minister Tito Mboweni last week confirmed that he would redirect R130billion in an adjustment Budget from various departments’ programmes that could afford to be postponed, including tourism initiatives, as restrictions still prohibited travel.

Tourism is one of the sectors that will remain shut when the five-week lockdown is eased to Level 4 to allow the phased reopening of the economy from Friday.