The Minister of Tourism, Patricia de Lille, has welcomed a decision that will see law enforcement stopping unduly penalising tour operators who have applied for licence renewals and are still awaiting their renewed licences from the Department of Transport.
“The National Department of Transport, through its National Public Transport Regulator Committee (NPTR), is responsible for issuing and renewing tour operator licences. Last year a backlog on applications had a severely negative impact on tour operators across the country,” the Minister said on Friday.
The decision follows in-depth engagements with the private sector and the Departments of Transport and Tourism. Engagement on the matter started last year.
“We agreed that the Minister of Transport would send a letter to all MECs for Transport for law enforcement officers to stop unduly penalising tour operators who are awaiting their licence renewal application decisions.
“The Department of Transport adjudicated 1 432 applications for tour operating licenses and the backlog was cleared last year.
“However, out of the 1 174 approved applications, only 636 operating licenses were uplifted/collected by tour operators,” de Lille said.
In an effort to remedy the slow upliftment and foster relations between the industry and the NPTR, the Department of Transport embarked on collaborative workshops with the Tourism Business Council of South Africa (TBCSA) in the key provinces of Gauteng, Western Cape and Kwa Zulu-Natal.
The solution-oriented roadshows created a platform for operators to engage directly with the NPTR to have their long-standing licensing issues resolved.
In addition, to resolve challenges within the tour operator licence process, a decision was taken at a recent Ministry of Transport and Transport MECs meeting to implore their respective law enforcement officers to correctly interpret Regulation 25(2) of the National Land Transport Regulations.
This includes law enforcement officers desisting from the inconvenience resulting from impounding vehicles whose operators have rightfully applied for renewals.
“The Department of Transport has acknowledged the critical role of tourism in the country’s economy and has committed to continuing with the collaborative engagements between the NPTR, the industry and sector departments to improve regulatory and administrative practices in the operating license processes.
“The penalising and impoundment of tour operator vehicles dealt a heavy blow to the industry and through the collective efforts of government and the private sector, namely the Tourism Business Council of South Africa (TBCSA) and the Southern Africa Tourism Services Association (SATSA), we have been able to resolve this matter.
“The Department of Tourism will continue working with the Department of Transport and all roleplayers to continue reducing red tape and creating an [environment for] ease of doing business for the tourism sector to allow the sector to grow and contribute even more to the country’s economy,” the Minister said. – SAnews.gov.za
