Solve air links issue to unlock Africa’s tourism potential – Richard Quest of CNN
CNN editor-at-large Richard Quest is back in South Africa, where he chaired sessions at the 2023 African Indaba in Durban and ended up befriending Tourism Minister Patricia de Lille. During a visit to Cape Town in February this year, he told Alec Hogg that his big takeaway was the "unimaginable" power outages. In this interview with Linda van Tilburg, the CNN anchor said that until Africa gets to grips with its air links issue, it will continue to "hobble with one hand behind its back, a patch on one eye and a shot in one foot." Quest also commented on South African Airways and on demands from some South Africans that the Cullinan diamonds that were prominent in King Charles III's sceptre and Queen Camilla's crown during the King's coronation should be given back, and asked what the sell-by date would be for claiming back disputed artefacts. – Linda van Tilburg
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Relevant timestamps from the interview
- 00:22 – Richard Quest on returning to South Africa
- 01:25 – Quest compares Joburg to Durban to Cape Town
- 02:30 – On the Cape Town and Johannesburg duopoly
- 03:43 – On his gauge of the general public sentiment in South Africa
- 05:07 – On why SA tourism has failed to bounce back post-pandemic
- 07:16 – On the hindering regulatory framework in South Africa
- 07:32 – On government intervention and investment
- 09:02 – On the failures of South African Airways
- 10:56 – On how African governments can improve their air links
- 11:53 – On new tourism minister, Patricia de Lille
- 13:05 – On the Tottenham Hotspur sponsorship plan
- 14:11 – On whether the British Monarchy should return the Cullinan diamond to South Africa
- 16:09 – On the "Pat & Richard Show", road tripping South Africa with Patricia de Lille
- 16:50 – On his strong interest in African stories
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Excerpts from the interview
Cape Town is the pretty boy, Johannesburg is earthier and vibey
Joburg is just Joburg. I revel when I come here, I just love being in Johannesburg. I find it to have a vibe, energy. The reality is that Joburg sets the trends in so many ways.
I think the duopoly of the two is a very eloquent way forward. I think that you have the best of both. Cape Town is clearly a pretty boy in a sense. It looks gorgeous. it's got beautiful scenery, the mountain and all of that. When you get to Johannesburg, which is earthier and it has a real, arguably a more African feel about it in a sense. I have unfortunately not been to other parts of the country. I was very lucky this morning. I got a nice good two-and-a-half, three-hour drive. I was out at Sun City, so I drove from here to Sun City and I got a chance to again, just talk to people, talk to people, hear what's on their minds, see what they're worried about, find out what they think.
South Africa should be growing at 5 or 6%
People of all economic structures, and all economic levels are worried. They are worried that the economy is not performing. Somebody said to me, well, the economy's growing at 1 – 1.5%. So, at least we're growing. But the point is you should be growing at 5% or 6% as a developing economy coming out of the pandemic, you should be enjoying that faster level of growth, but you're not because R900 million a day is being wasted because of load shedding, power cuts. You have a variety of problems that follow on from that. Money that should be invested elsewhere in the economy is not and people are naturally worried. Inflation, and unemployment are deep-seeded problems.
Why are there no low-cost carriers in Africa?
Many other places haven't fully bounced back but South Africa has a couple of unique problems. The famous issue of how do you get people here? Where are they coming from? Now, we all often talk about the high-spending, European or American tourists. But so much of tourism during the pandemic was domestic tourism within South Africa and then you have intraregional tourism. Well, that hasn't bounced back because there aren't any air links yet. It hasn't fully been established. The truth is that until this continent gets to grips with its air links issue, the very best tourism across the continent, Pan-African, is going to be hobbled with one hand behind its back, a patch on one eye and shot in the foot. You've got to ask yourself why Europe has an entire industry of low-cost carriers. Same in the United States. Frontier, Spirit… same in Australia, same even in Central and Southern America, where you now have more and more low-cost carriers flying between countries. But you don't have that in Africa because there are too many countries that are being too protectionist about opening up the skies.
On "tiny" South African Airways
If you look at your neighbours, how many of these countries are either still trying to start national airlines or they're trying to protect domestic markets? It's nonsense. It's absolute nonsense. To some extent, I even raise an eyebrow at the new revamped SAA. It just announced more aircraft for regional routes than the one long-haul aircraft. You have to ask the question, what purpose is this airline going to serve? Once it is up and running, it's going to be tiny in comparison to its competitors or once it's international. What I would like to hear from SAA is more of a strategy of where it sees itself in the global structure. How is it going to feed the people into South Africa? It has a role to play, but what is that role?
Where do you stop when you start returning disputed artefacts like the Cullinan diamond?
Looking at the slavery past, the role of the monarchy, the issue of the Elgin Marbles, for instance, here is a question for you: Once you start down this road of returning, where do you stop? At what point do you say, No, your claim is not valid or all your claims may be valid, but it's not the right thing to do. Or no, we're not going to do that because history has moved on.
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