The Portfolio Committee on Tourism hosted a tourism summit over a period of two days (17 - 18 September).
The summit was held as part of the parliamentary programme in observing tourism month with the International Tourism Day celebrated worldwide on 27 September. The summit is subsequent to one that was hosted by the Committee in 2011. The theme for this year was “Removing barriers for tourism growth to fulfill the national development plan”.
During the period of sharing information, the Committee received presentations from various stakeholders in the sector such as academics, civil society, private sector, labour and state owned companies.
Chairperson for the Portfolio Committee on Tourism, Mr Donald Gumede said one of the main objectives of the summit was to foster collaboration among various stakeholders who directly and indirectly affect the performance of the industry. Other objectives were to:
- Establish a common understanding about the National Development Plan between the private and public sector within the tourism industry
- Create awareness about the importance of roles played by different stakeholders in the tourism sector
- Create a platform for government departments to share their plans for supporting the tourism industry.
The first day of the summit was dedicated to policy related issues whereby various departments articulated their plans regarding issues affecting tourism. The second day of the summit focused on three areas that were divided into three commissions under the following subjects: unlocking airlift for tourism, growing domestic tourism and tourism transformation
Proposed draft resolutions:
- Department of Arts and Culture to work together with the National Department of Tourism in conducting a feasibility study of having different charging regimes for citizens and international tourists visiting cultural and heritage tourism attractions
- South African Tourism and Department of Arts and Culture to explore joint marketing ventures for cultural and heritage tourism attractions
- Departments of Tourism, Arts and Culture, Transport and Cooperative Governance to have joint planning at a national strategy and policy level on issues of common interest
- Department of Tourism to work closely with Cooperative Governance in assisting municipalities to establish tourism coordinating structures.
- Parliament to look into differentiated but equal development in terms of restrictions posed by carbon footprint regime in responding to the European Union Emission Trading System.
- Parliament to engage the African Union with the view of persuading other African countries to ratify the Yamoussoukro Declaration, and signatory countries to implement commitments made in the declaration
- Low cost airlines to work closely with destinations (provinces and cities) to stimulate tourism packages that promote domestic tourism and address geographical spread
- Enhance collaboration among various government departments in a form of Implementation Protocols and memoranda of understanding to create a conducive environment for tourism growth
- Stakeholders to collaborate in developing affordable packages to promote domestic tourism and promote culture of travel among South Africans
- South African Tourism to work closely with destinations to work towards having matching product offerings with the demand of the identified market segments in South Africa
- Destinations have to explore possibilities of establishing comprehensive tourism routes to promote local and rural tourism based on available research
- Destinations to work closely with development finance institutions to package high Impact Tourism Projects to facilitate investments in the sector
- Parliament to engage National Treasury in motivating for more funding for tourism growth
- National Department of Tourism to intensify collaboration with institutions of higher to further tourism research, development and innovation
- National Department of Tourism to share the results of the study commissioned on transformation to ascertain if further Tourism BEE Charter and Score Card impact study needs to be conducted to establish if these instruments have to been able to drive transformation in the sector
- Spheres of government to develop joint programmes for capacity building for municipal local economic development tourism officials. Partnership with SALGA must be established in training municipal LED/ tourism staff
- Investigates merits and demerits of imposing a National Heritage Levy – Tourism and Arts and Culture
The resolutions will then be sent to the National Assembly as recommendation wherein afterwards the draft resolutions will be debated and considered for adoption. Once the report has been adopted by the NA, it will be sent to stakeholders in the tourism industry and all institutions of higher education in order to advance the state of tourism.
For inquiries or interviews with the Chairperson, contact:
Yoliswa Landu
Parliamentary Communication Services
Tel: 021 403 8203
Cell: 073 738 0182
Email: ylandu@parliament.gov.za
