Department
of Environmental Affairs and Tourism
THURSDAY, 24 AUGUST 2006: “We
should strive for greater levels of partnerships
with the private sector, labour and communities
to achieve success in priority areas like the
provision of safe and adequate accommodation,
establishment of diverse and vibrant tourism products,
capacity building for the sector and tourism marketing
especially in view of the 2010 World Cup”
The Director General of the
Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism,
Ms Pam Yako said today marking the launch of September
as Tourism Month which happened in Hazyview, Mpumalanga,
today, 24 August 2006. The month of September
has been dedicated as the tourism month in South
Africa to showcase the unique and diverse tourism
experiences in the nine provinces of the country.
With the release of domestic
tourism statistics this week, indicating the need
for greater focus in the domestic market, the
Director General called on all South Africans
to assist in efforts to grow the domestic market.
“We have to make our domestic tourism growth strategy
work through interaction and more vigorous exchange
of ideas as players in this economy and industry”
she said.
She added that such partnerships
should extend to the critical area of skills development
and empowerment. “While we acknowledge the strides
made in transforming this industry, we still implore
upon all stakeholders to join hands in the implementation
of the BEE Tourism Charter” said the DG.
The Director General also noted
that the tourism sector has been identified as
one of the immediate priority sectors for the
Accelerated Shared Growth Initiative of South
Africa (ASGISA) and as one of the key contributors
to the targeted 6% economic growth. Repeating
the sentiments of the Deputy Minister of Environmental
Affairs and Tourism during the launch, the Director
General confirmed that tourism’s overall performance
compared to key economic sectors in South Africa
was also very good.
Reacting to reports today about
South Africa’s readiness for 2010 and the alleged
crime worry, the Director General said that it
was unfortunate that some media chose to misrepresent
what Dr Matlou said to parliamentarians with regard
to safety and security issues in 2010. “The reality
of the matter is that efforts to ensure that all
aspects of infrastructure, services and tourism
plans are in place and well advanced including
an effective safety and security strategy” she
said.
The Director General added that
South Africa hosted the Rugby World Cup, the Cricket
World Cup, the Confederation of African Football
Cup of Nations and the Women’s World Cup of Golf
with resounding success and without hassle. “It
is completely off beam for some sections of the
media to seek to cast a spell on the readiness
of South Africa to host the Soccer World Cup in
2010 and to attribute such doubts to the SA government
as custodian hosts of the world cup” she said.
Mava Scott (Director: Communications)
Speech By The Deputy Minister
Of Environmental Affairs And Tourism, Rejoice
Mabudafhasi
At The Event Of The Launch The Tourism Month -
Shangana Cultural Village Hazyview Mpumalanga
Programme Director
Premier Thabang Makwetla
Honourable MEC Sipho Lubisi
Mayors present with us today
Members of the Media
Distinguished Guests
Ladies and Gentlemen
It gives me immense pleasure to address you today
at this important occasion of the launch of the
Tourism Month. The World Tourism Day’s theme for
2006 is “Tourism Enriches”, a very relevant theme
for us, and one that demands of us to take action
and grow the tourism industry for the benefit
our people. It is imperative that we translate
this theme into pragmatic community programmes
that will inform and educate our people on how
tourism could truly enrich them, economically,
socially and culturally.
The World Tourism Day is an
annual event designed to foster awareness among
the international community of the importance
of tourism and its social, cultural, political
and economic values. In South Africa we have decided
to dedicate September as the tourism month. It
is during this month that we showcase the unique
diverse and tourism experiences in our nine provinces.
Programme Director, the tourism
sector has been identified as one of the immediate
priority sectors for the Accelerated Shared Growth
Initiative of South Africa (ASGISA) and as one
of the key contributors to the targeted 6% economic
growth. The tourism sector has experienced impressive
growth in recent years. Tourism’s overall performance
compared to key economic sectors in South Africa
is also very good. Compared to other sectors that
were similarly identified by government as key
growth sectors, tourism was the only sector that
grew both in GDP contribution and employment.
Estimates of the contribution
to South Africa’s GDP by the tourism sector tend
to range from 7.5 to 10% of total GDP. The total
amount spent directly in South Africa by foreign
tourists in 2004 is estimated at over R50 billion.
To date, the contribution to employment is estimated
at 512,000 direct tourism jobs. Put simply, more
tourists will generate more jobs for our people.
I am also very proud to announce
that South African Tourism has made a major breakthrough
in terms of understanding the domestic market.
We now have the first annual report on domestic
travel which is based on monthly surveys of incidence
of travel in South Africa in 2005.
The results in this report are
breath-taking; it shows that 36.2 million domestic
trips were undertaken in 2005, resulting in R21.2
billion of direct spending, with the average spend
of R585.00 per trip. In addition, a record of
154.9 million bednights was achieved, with an
average length of stay of 4.3 nights. The most
visited province in 2005 was KwaZulu Natal. Our
challenge now is to market other provinces so
that we can maximize the spin-offs from domestic
tourism.
South Africa is not only a world
class destination for holiday travel, we are also
very fortunate be regarded as one of the best
destinations for business meetings in developing
countries, especially in Africa. We already account
for more than 63% of all conference activities
in Africa.
I am certain that hosting the
2010 FIFA World Cup will further improve our profile
and capacity to stage international events. We
can only achieve this through partnerships with
the private sector, labour and communities to
address priority issues such as:
The provision of adequate and
safe accommodation for visitors. The work done
by the Grading Council is very important in terms
of the quality assurance of accommodation, conference,
restaurant, golf courses and other facilities.
Establishment of a diverse and
vibrant range of tourism products for visitors
in order to keep them satisfied throughout their
stay. This calls for innovation, creativity and
dedication amongst all the role players in the
industry. We will also work with the tour operators
to develop tour packages for World Cup visitors.
Capacity building and skills
development to ensure the provision of an efficient
tourism service. One of our immediate priorities
is training guides to speak various foreign languages.
To this end, we have already started to provide
foreign language training in Chinese, French,
German and Spanish. There are plans to develop
programmes in other languages like Arabic, Italian,
Portuguese, Russian etc. These skills development
programs are part and parcel of our contribution
to the Joint Initiative for Priority Skills Acquisition
(JIPSA) which is being led by our Deputy President.
The forthcoming Tourism Conference which will
be held in October will unpack various skills
development issues in this industry and find ways
of accelerating the interventions required.
Tourism marketing, especially
through the 2010 Soccer World Cup, to increase
international awareness of South Africa as a premier
tourist destination. It is therefore also important
to intensify SA Tourism’s marketing campaign called
Business Unusual so that our tourists are well
aware of the different products available in our
country.
Public transport to ensure that
visitors are able to access our numerous and beautiful
tourist attractions in the most efficient way
possible. We are also working closely with the
Department of Transport and private entities to
ensure that there is sufficient and safe transport
for tourists.
Despite these encouraging developments,
the reality is that South Africa has only just
scratched the surface in terms of growing the
tourism industry.
South African Tourism, in its
strategic research programme over the last three
years, has identified bands of consumer segments
in key markets who are not only frequent long
haul leisure travellers for whom holidays to faraway
places are an essential part of life, but are
also positive towards South Africa and actively
interested in visiting our country. The large
number of such people out there should serve as
a clear indication of the potential market that
still needs to be tapped into.
The Secretary General of the
United Nations, Koffin Annan once said,” it is
the absence of broad based business activity not
its presence that condemns much of humanity to
suffering. Indeed what is utopian is the notion
that poverty can be overcome without the active
engagement of business”. These remarks are quite
fitting for the business situation in our tourism
industry. From a socio-economic perspective, benefits
within the tourism industry are not yet broad
based since most of our people are excluded from
accessing business opportunities.
While Tourism contributes significantly
to our economy, it is one of the least transformed
industries in the country. Although it is a daunting
task, transformation in this industry is a very
critical process because we need to create economic
development opportunities for previously disadvantaged
people and give hope to those who are not employed.
Related to this is the issue
of broadening economic participation to previously
disadvantaged individuals. The benefits of this
broadened economic participation can be geographically
spread across the country, more so than in other
sectors. To us as government, Black Economic Empowerment
makes competitive business sense, as it will introduce
innovation with new players entering the industry
and bringing along their skills and expertise.
In accordance with the legislative
framework on Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment,
the department has established a council for the
implementation of the BEE Charter which has been
in operation since 2005.
The goal of the BEE Tourism
Charter Council is to provide information that
allows all citizens to access economic opportunities
in the tourism industry. This process must be
well informed so as to benefit all stakeholders
and in that way, meet the desired objectives of
Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment.
Program Director, we need to
make concerted efforts to remove our people from
the poverty trap and achieve the United Nations
Millenium Declaration on halving the number of
people living on less than a dollar a day by 2015.
We need to create and promote new products to
sustain the tourism industry and consolidate its
role on poverty eradication.
We must develop community-based
tourism programs that take into account the needs,
culture, indigenous knowledge and aspirations
of our people. From a product development and
marketing perspective, we need to give priority
to cultural tourism and encourage tourists to
visit our areas and experience our traditional
ways of living. Tourists are very interested in
learning and experiencing our unique culture.
The notion that tourists are only interested in
visiting cities and game reserves is both false
and misleading. An increasing number of tourists
is visiting our townships and communities. It
is therefore important that we plan, develop and
market tourism routes in our local areas.
Program Director, another form
of tourism that is very successful but not given
enough importance and profile is religious tourism.
Religious tourism has been identified as one of
the potential growth segments within the tourism
industry throughout the world.
To this end the World Tourism
Organisation in partnership with Cyprus Tourism
Organisation is organising the first International
Conference on Religious Tourism to be held in
Nicosia, Cyprus on 19-21 October 2006. This is
in recognition of the importance of religious
tourism all over the world. The linkages between
religion and tourism need to be fully communicated
to ensure further growth of the tourism industry.
In our country, we have shining examples on how
religious tourism enriches our people spiritually.
One such example is the most visible increase
in movement of tourists to different provinces
for religious purposes during the Easter Period.
Programme Director, its unfortunate
that despite the critical role played by women
in this industry, they are often expected to justify
their involvement and participation. We have a
challenge to positively embrace their participation
as they bring along a unique voice to the industry.
Women are always present around tourist sites
where they prepare local food, sell fruits and
vegetables, handicrafts and other items of tourist
attraction. As the women’s month moves towards
the end let us do everything possible to support
women’s active participation in all facets of
the tourism industry; for without them there can
be no tourism growth.
Through the employment of women,
youth, people with disabilities and other vulnerable
members of society, tourism can play a vital role
towards achieving social equity and a better life
for all.
In conclusion Programme
Director, I wish to caution that we need to guard
against ill-conceived tourism development initiatives
that may result in environmental degradation and
depletion of natural resources. We must promote
responsible tourism which embraces the principles
of environmental sustainability and biodiversity
conservation as part of its core business.
I thank you
Roopa Singh
