Tokozile Xasa, the Deputy Minister of Tourism, today launched the R7,6 million Rustenburg 2010 Visitor Information Centre (VIC) in North West province
The world class VIC was built in preparation for the 2010 FIFA World Cup as both the public and private sectors gear up for the influx of tourists during the event and beyond.
As part of the national VIC project, centres are being rolled out in five host cities, namely Port Elizabeth, Polokwane, Nelspruit, Rustenburg and Bloemfontein. These less visited provinces were earmarked by the department for the VIC’s in preparation for the world cup, but also to grow their tourism arrivals from both local and international visitors.
The centres provide tourists with a one stop service and will be able to assist with information on a wide range of tourism products including tourism information enquiries, reservations, accommodation, tours, vehicle hire, entertainment, dining, sports, adventure, shopping and travel tips.
The target markets for the VIC’s include international tourists, local tourists, bed and breakfast establishments, homesteads, guesthouses, hotels, small, medium and micro-enterprise (SMME’s), booking agencies and tourism agencies. The Rustenburg VIC covers 412 square meters and has two offices, retail area for locally produced crafts, a big foyer serving as reception area, fully fitted coffee shop, displays and ablution facilities.
With 262 days to the kick off of 2010 Soccer World Cup in South Africa, these facilities and services will enable the VIC to play a meaningful front line role and enhance tourism marketing. It has been benchmarked against the best Visitor Information Centres in the world and designed to service the needs of the visitor in the most effective way.
The department has already launched Visitor Information Centres in Port Elizabeth in Eastern Cape and Polokwane in Limpopo province. The information and reservation system Visitor Information Centres enterprise network systems (VICENSYS) used in the centres was developed in South Africa and is designed to cater specifically for the South African market
The information technology component of the project was critical, as one of the key objectives of the project was the development of a cost effective information and reservation system. Using international best practice, a new visitor’s information system, namely VICENCYS, was developed to be used at all the information centres.
VICENSYS has the ability to allow users to plan and finalise a travel itinerary by means of touch screens and Web based technology. Furthermore, the system offers the tourist their own unique itinerary, which is accessible from anywhere in the world.
The Rustenburg Visitor Information Centre is fitted with the VICENSYS system connected to a fully equipped local area network (LAN) and will provide information such as accommodation, travel, shopping centres, car rentals and a host of other tourism facilities and services.
Speaking during the launch, Deputy Minister Tokozile Xasa said “ VICs play an important role in tourism marketing and leveraging the tourism benefits to all players in the tourism industry because it exposes visitors and domestic tourists to choices they would not easily access before since some tourism businesses lack resources for marketing. As a country, we didn’t have a user-friendly system that assists the movements of the sophisticated domestic and well travelled tourist.”
Xasa added that “apart from assisting tourist navigation of our country which will result in a tourism boom, this initiative further strives to ensure equitable distribution of the tourism cake to all South Africans through increased work opportunities and strengthening SMMEs. We are eager to introduce a system that complies with and will exceed international standards through its continuous improvements.”
The idea behind the information technology system was to integrate and standardise the technology component throughout South Africa to allow the visitor to have a seamless travel experience before, during and after the World Cup. It will also afford the visitor the ability to access information from any location in one of the five host cities.
In line with marketing South Africa as a tourist destination, the government viewed hosting the 2010 Soccer World Cup as an ideal opportunity to erect or upgrade existing structures to house Visitors Information Centres (VIC) in host cities. Apart from creating easy access and awareness of accommodation facilities and attractions within an area for tourists, VIC also creates a medium for SMMEs and historically disadvantaged individuals (HDIs), engaged within the hospitality industry, to advertise their products.
The partners and stakeholders in this initiative include our department, Rustenburg municipality and Anix Consulting.
Media enquiries can be referred to:
Moses Rannditsheni
Cell: 082 448 2450
Luvuyo Shasha
Tel: 012-310 3899
Cell: 071 215 6373
Butler Mahlapeng
Tel: 014 590 3277
Cell: 076 590 2660
Issued by: Department of Tourism
21 September 2009
