It is once again a great honour for me to address the South African Association for the Conference Industry (SAACI) conference and share with you some of government’s perspectives and initiatives.
South Africa’s status as a premier global leisure tourism destination is now firmly entrenched. The year 2010 was, in this regard, an exceptionally good one. On the back of the FIFA World Cup our global visibility reached unprecedented levels. We have demonstrated that we have the capabilities, the welcoming culture and the authentic offerings that the world’s ever more discerning travellers demand. Indeed, we made our mark.
The success story of our hosting of this mega-event was showcased to a global audience of potential business travellers. They have seen our impressive infrastructure, our organisational skills and our natural beauty. They have shared in our success.
What remains is for us to continually enhance and leverage this global positioning. As a country we have already secured more than 200 events for the next five years. These events will attract some 300 000 delegates to our major business tourism cities and will contribute significantly to foreign direct spend into our economy
In the aftermath of the economic recession, global buyers have become increasingly adept at driving down costs. Our task is to carefully nurture our value-for-money reputation and present diversified offerings to the business traveller.
I appreciate the fact that you are at the coalface of our industry and deal with the triumphs, but also the challenges we face every day. I do understand that while the long term trends for tourism are extremely positive, these trends are not necessarily translating into immediate profitability across the board. Upon analysis, however, this is quite understandable.
We are operating in an environment with increased capacity in terms of amongst others our accommodation offering, and we are still feeling the effects of the global economic crisis. I want you to know we understand these challenges. And I want to give you my assurance that these are transient issues that will not disrupt our long term positive growth prospects. I want to appeal to you to not lose faith and keep your eyes firmly focused on the many wins we have already chalked up.
The National Department of Tourism is absolutely committed to working with you in developing the potential of business tourism. This sub-sector is ideally placed to address some of the seasonality challenges that are difficult to meet through leisure tourism alone.
One of the most important building blocks we have put in place as part of our new growth plans has been the first ever National Tourism Sector Strategy (NTSS), which was approved by Cabinet on 2 March.
This ambitious strategy represents our commitment to intelligent planning and policy formulation. It was developed over a two year period in close collaboration with local and provincial government, an advisory panel of top industry minds, representatives of a variety of professional bodies, academia, and tourism marketing agencies, civil society and the broader public.
The NTSS is a document that the entire sector is committed to. We have worked hard to ensure that our ambitious targets are coordinated and credible. The strategy rests on three pillars, namely driving the tourism economy, enhancing visitor experiences and ensuring sustainability and good governance in the industry.
We aim to increase the number of foreign tourist arrivals to South Africa from 7 million in 2009 to 15 million by 2020, tourism's total contribution to the economy from R189 billion in 2009 to R499 billion by 2020, the number of domestic tourists from 14.6 million in 2009 to 18 million by 2020 and to create 225 000 new jobs by 2020.
The NTSS also consolidates our strategic outlook for the business tourism sub-sector and outlines some of our plans to bring more business meetings, events and conferences to South Africa.
Under the auspices of the National Department of Tourism, the new National Conventions Bureau (NCB) to be established within SA Tourism will make a significant impact in terms of coordinating and strengthening efforts to attract meetings and conventions to South Africa.
We will also have to find a way, in consultation with industry, to strengthen the current accreditation of professional conference organisers. As you are all aware, SAACI worked in partnership with the Tourism Grading Council of South Africa (TGCSA) to review the grading criteria. The new quality control framework will undoubtedly enhance South Africa’s status as a preferred international destination for major business tourism events and conferences.
In conclusion, let me reiterate our appreciation for the active engagement of SAACI in our efforts to create a globally competitive and mutually beneficial platform to market our destination. It is this spirit of collaboration that drives the success of our industry.
It is up to all of us to pool our significant resources; our experience; our depth of knowledge and our creativity to collectively market our destination to an exceptionally lucrative global business tourism market.
The dedication, ingenuity and propensity for hard, productive work by all of you confirm that our optimism is well grounded.
I wish you a successful and productive conference.
Media enquiries:
Natasha Rockman
Tel: 021 465 7240
Cell: 076 429 226
E-mail: nrockman@tourism.gov.za
Source: Department of Tourism
