The Western Cape Government will be making submissions to oppose any regulations which could impact tourism revenue and affect people’s private property rights. This was revealed by Western Cape minister Minister of Economic Opportunities Beverley Schäfer in a statement.
This follows the proposed Tourism Amendment Bill which may regulate short term stay platform like Airbnb through “threshold” measures that the Minister of Tourism can implement.
Blessing Manale, chief director of communication at the Department of Tourism says the thresholds may include a limit on the number of nights guests could stay at an establishment. It could perhaps even limit the number of guests due to potentially larger water consumption in an area. Thresholds could also look at pricing, zoning, how much an establishment can earn and maybe even regulating matters like security.
However, the Western Cape is government is against any regulation that could “impact tourism revenue and affect people’s private property rights”.
“The Western Cape government is driving tourism growth and in order to develop this sector, we need a sufficient mix of hotel, B&B and home rental room nights in order to accommodate a wide variety of tourists and budgets,” said Schäfer in a statement.
Schäfer also said any regulation that will impact on a host’s ability to a living must be rejected outright.
Over 2 million people have made use of Airbnb alone in this country, and if regulations make it more difficult for travellers to access this kind of accommodation, they will simply vote with their wallets and go elsewhere. We cannot allow this to happen.
More: Fin24