Tourism businesses encouraged to apply for Green Tourism Incentive Programme: South Africa

SOUTH AFRICA SUSTAINABILITY

Minister of Tourism, Patricia de Lille, has announced the opening of the 8th application window for the Green Tourism Incentive Programme (GTIP) from 2 May to 30 June 2023. Eligible tourism enterprises are encouraged to apply in recognition of National Energy Month and to help mitigate the current energy constraints faced by the country.

The GTIP is an incentive programme of the Department of Tourism with the objective to encourage and support private-sector tourism enterprises to adopt more responsible tourism practices and move towards the sustainable management and usage of water and energy. The programme is administered by the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) on behalf of the Department and all applications and approvals are managed by the IDC.

"I encourage all eligible tourism businesses to apply now for the Green Tourism Incentive Programme. Accelerating climate action in tourism is of utmost importance for the resilience of the sector as well as strengthening adaptive capacity. This programme is also part of government’s efforts to reduce demand on the national electricity grid and is a stellar example of government investing in water and energy efficiency measures which not only address the impacts of climate change, but also the impacts of economic and electricity constraints we are all confronted with," says De Lille.

The previous seven application windows of the GTIP have yielded 130 approved applications thus far at a total grant value of R76.1m was disbursed to businesses to install energy and water-saving measures at their tourism establishments.

Reducing costs

This programme offers partial grant funding to assist qualifying tourism enterprises especially small to medium enterprises to reduce the cost of investing in energy and water-efficient operations, which will lower their cost of operations, and facilitate increased competitiveness and operational sustainability in the tourism sector over the long term.

Under the GTIP, eligible applicants are able to qualify for the full cost of a new energy and water efficiency audit or the review of an existing audit. Furthermore, eligible applicants are also able to qualify for grant funding of between 50% and 90% (capped at a maximum of R1m per applicant) on the cost of implementing approved solutions that will improve the energy and water efficiency of the tourism enterprise.

The development of GTIP was informed by escalating electricity prices, the intensifying pressure on the national energy grid and associated load-shedding conditions, as well as water scarcity and drought conditions which negatively impact the tourism sector.