Programme Director;
The Honourable Mayor of Ugu District Municipality, Councillor Gumede;
The Honourable Mayor of the Hibiscus Municipality, Councillor Mqwebu;
Industry stakeholders present;
Esteemed councillors present;
Dignitaries present;
Ladies and Gentlemen;
All protocol observed
It gives us pleasure as the Ministry of Economic Development and Tourism to be part of this occasion where we are gathered as social partners to launch one of the initiatives which is aimed at promoting our province as the tourist destination of choice.
Programme Director, one of the characteristics that make our province a must visit destination for many people is because it has a kaleidoscope of tourism offerings.
In this regard, in the smorgasbord of our tourism treasures, the Ugu Municipality and in particular the Hibiscus Municipality and the town of Margate occupy a special place as one of the glittering jewels in our crown. It is because of this reason that when we thought of launching this important campaign, the Summer Campaign, we decided that we should do it here.
Programme Director, our province is approaching one of the busiest periods in our tourism calendar – the festive season. As all of us know, during this period, our province attracts no less than two million tourists. However, it is often said that luck happens when opportunity meets preparedness.
Because we operate in a contested space, we always felt that while KwaZulu-Natal is doing well as evidenced by the fact that it is the net attractor of domestic tourism, we can still do more. It is because of this reason that last year we launched the KZN IS SUMMER campaign which is aimed at marketing the province as the preferred destination of choice particularly during this time of the year. This campaign has many pillars. One of these is to do activations in other provinces to ensure that we increase our market share and to use various media platforms to sell the province. We will in due course announce the provinces we will visit for the activations.
This year we have put together a booklet which has all the major events that will be taking place during the December/January holiday season. We want to ensure that when a tourist visits our province he or she is able to pick up this booklet and get to know all there is to know about major events taking place in our province.
Over and above this, in line with creating a new inclusive brand identity for our country, we have adopted a new pay off line namely Zulu Kingdom. Exceptional. We have opted to move away from defining the province by its destinations only but also through highlighting experiences. Such experiences were defined as ‘Warmth, Heritage, Adventure, Trade Gateway, Zulu, Fun, Family- Orientated and Beach.’
An acronym representing the province’s experiences, WHATZFFOB, was especially developed. The Summer Campaign will prove critical in highlighting this shift in our messaging and marketing. Programme Director, the fact of the matter is that the tourism industry is an industry where you need to keep on re-inventing yourself while not losing your identity in order to stay ahead of the pack.
Programme Director, we meet today at the time when the world economy is facing a number of challenges, chief among these the sovereignty debt crisis in Europe. As all of us know, when the economy is not doing well the tourism industry is adversely affected because this industry relies, primarily, on disposable income.
What is more discomforting about the current Euro zone financial crisis is that it has affected the buoyant mood of slow recovery from the recession of 2008. This, Programme Director, means that as stakeholders in the tourism market we have to find innovative ways to ensure that this industry remains above water in spite of the current not-so-rosy economic outlook.
According to the United Nation’s World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO), international tourist arrivals was up by 6.6% to 940 million last year. In 2010 international tourism receipts are said to have reached $919 billion, up from $851 billion in 2009.
As the reflection of the economic conditions during this time, recovery was particularly strong in emerging economies, with arrivals growing faster than 8%. The UNWTO also notes that in spite of the economic shocks, international arrivals have shown virtually uninterrupted growth, from 25 million in 1950, to 277 million in 1980, to 435 million in 1990, to 675 million in 2000 and the current 940 million.
What is even more important, Programme Director, is that growth has been particularly fast in the emerging economies with the share of developing economies have risen from 31% in 1990 to 47% in 2010.
The significance of these figures is that they show clearly that the developing world is the future for tourism growth. It is because of this reason that as tourism stakeholders we must look at how we can benefit from this growth of tourism in the emerging markets.
Just as the saying goes that in order to confront the challenges brought about the interconnectivity of the world, we must think out of the box so must we continually search for ways of playing in the global tourism stage.
Just this week, Programme Director, our province made history when it embarked, together with Swaziland and Mozambique on an East3Route expedition which started in Isimangaliso Wetland Park on Tuesday, proceeded to Mozambique and ended in Swaziland on Thursday.
This initiative is aimed at ensuring that this route becomes a catalyst and grows the tourism industry between these countries for the benefit of all our people. But more importantly, it is aimed at ensuring that, with the looming regional integration, this route becomes a key tourism experience for anyone visiting countries within the SADC region.
One of the attributes that make the Hibiscus Municipality one of the much sought after tourist destination is its pristine beaches. Beach tourism remains one of the pillars of our selling points in this province. It is because of this reason that when we delivered our budget speech during the 2009/2010 financial year one of the undertakings we made was that we will develop a beach tourism policy which will provide an overarching strategy of how to manage our beaches and ensure their competitiveness as anchor tourist attractions for coastal tourism destinations. It is, therefore, our pleasure to inform all the stakeholders that, after intense and all encompassing consultation, this policy has become a reality.
Programme Director, this policy is based on four strategic thrusts:
- Ensuring that sustainable tourism is making an increasing contribution to the local economy of coastal communities
- Improving the quality of visitor experience
- An integrated approach to the development and management of coastal tourism
- Safe guarding and protecting the environment and cultural heritage as a key resource for the development of coastal tourism.
In short, the activities undertaken by coastal municipalities should create assurances to local beach users as well as international and domestic tourists, that the local beaches offer safe and well-managed bathing conditions. This is even more critical given the fact that the competition between destinations that have beach tourism offerings has become even more intense.
Programme Director, this policy acknowledges the fact that there are various beach classification systems used worldwide to manage and market beach tourism and the common factors among them is environmental management and water quality for bathers.
However, after an exhaustive process of consultation it was felt that we need to adopt and pilot at least one common beach management classification system that is internationally accredited. Therefore, the policy recommends that the province adopts the Blue Flag Programme to promote beach tourism in the province.
The Blue Flag programme will be piloted in two coastal municipalities by 2013 to ascertain the following:
(i) The impact of using Blue Flag as a marketing tool;
(ii) The financial implications associated with the programme;
(iii) Impact of the Blue Flag Programme on tourist arrivals, length of stay and tourism spend;
(iv) Implications of the implementation protocol to relevant stakeholders;
(v) Effectiveness of the proposed implementation protocol
The rationale for the recommendation of the Blue Flag Programme is that it is an internationally recognized beach management programme that is used by tourists when purchasing tour packages and is one of the programmes that promote friendly environment and water quality. Secondly, Hibiscus Coast Municipality, is already enrolled in the Blue Flag Programme. It must be noted that the Blue Flag is a voluntary programme and no municipality can be compelled to comply with the criteria.
Programme Director, we hope that this policy will be instrumental in improving compliance at local level with national and local regional environmental legislations and regulators instruments. But more importantly, this policy should offer an opportunity to strengthen existing local and national capacities for coastal zone management.
Critically, this policy means that there is no ambiguity about what is expected from all coastal municipalities in terms of how they should manage this precious resource and turn it into an economic benefit for our people. What we also want to stress is that this policy is a product of consultation with all the stakeholders. Therefore, we expect all municipalities to embrace it.
In the short to medium term, we will identify beaches that can easily comply with the policy in order to immediately implement it. As the Department of Economic Department and Tourism, we want assure all coastal municipalities that we stand ready to assist them in implementing this policy.
Programme Director, as we said earlier the tourism landscape is shifting rapidly, with new offerings being developed and repacked. It is therefore critical that we should constantly innovate in order to be trail blazers. We have no doubt that this campaign we are launching today as well as the beach management policy that we a re unveiling today will help us to achieve that goal and to ensure that KwaZulu-Natal remains the tourist destination of choice.
KZN IS SUMMER FOREVER!!!!
I thank you.
