Address by the KwaZulu-Natal MEC for Economic Development and Tourism, the Honourable Michael Mabuyakhulu on the occasion of the gala dinner for the Swaziland leg of the East Three Route

On behalf of the government of KwaZulu‐Natal and the people of our province, it is with a sense of delight that we meet this evening to mark the second instalment of the East 3 Route expedition, an initiative which has gone a long way to strengthen mutually beneficial relationships between the people of our province, Swaziland and Mozambique, particularly from a trade and tourism perspective.

Programme Director, we wish to start by expressing our collective gratitude to the people of Swaziland for the top of the drawer treatment and hospitality that they have extended to us since we arrived yesterday to mark the first leg of this expedition which is increasingly becoming one of the biggest events in the tourism calendar of our respective countries.

We believe that we would be speaking for everyone if we say that the people of Swaziland have not only accorded us the royal treatment for which this country is renowned globally but they have made us feel more than at home away from home.

Pointedly, Programme Director, while many of us have always been enchanted by the natural and idyllic beauty of this country and the warmth of her people, today we learned even more about the mosaic and tapestry of other tourism offerings which make Swaziland a complete package for any tourist.

Not only have the people of Swaziland set the highest standards which will be difficult to match for us, but the relatively smooth start to the expedition has given us an unshakable sense of renewed confidence that this year’s expedition will be more successful than the inaugural one which was held last year.

Programme Director, as many of you would recall this expedition started last year as part of efforts to revive the Lubombo Spatial Developmental Initiative which was started by the Heads of State of our respective countries to boost trade and tourism between our countries.

Programme Director, while we have always believed that our fate and destiny, not only because of our geographical locations, but also because of the strong cultural ties that date back to many years are inextricably linked, the recent developments within the African continent and the global economic space have left us with no doubt that we need to work even more closer.

As all of us know, the tectonic shift in the global economic planet has seen established economies taking a huge blow, while emerging markets are in the ascendancy. Over and above this, Africa has emerged as the next frontier of growth and Bretton Woods institutions such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have projected that seven out of ten fastest growing economies in the world will be from our continent in the next few years.

Other studies such as the one done by the Mckinsey Global Institute have also underscored the obvious fact that Africa is set to be the biggest economic story in recent times.

Such is the air of positive sentiment about Africa’s economic resurgence that even though the IMF has recently revised downwardly the projected global growth due to the intractable Euro Zone crisis, Africa’ s economies continue to power a head. This, therefore, means that we need to forge even more closer working relations as countries within the Southern African Development region.

The East 3 Route initiative, in this regard, becomes a practical expression of this relationship between the province of KwaZulu‐Natal, Swaziland and Mozambique.

Programme Director, since last year we have been working hard to ensure that this route lives up to its billing and is able to attract tourists from other countries. We have used many international platforms such as the World Tourism Market, which takes place in London annually in November to market it.

We have also used the ITB, which takes place in Berlin, German as well as the Fitur which takes place in Spain to introduce this route to the global tourism community. While we are under no illusions about the difficult prevailing economic conditions which have hit the tourism industry hardest, we are thrilled that we are slowly beginning to gain confidence that this route is beginning to take off.

Just recently, Tourism KwaZulu‐Natal, our agency responsible for marketing our province hosted tour operators from our province as well as tour operators from Spain as part of ongoing efforts to put together tourism packages for this route. This initiative was held in partnership with the Emirates airline, the world biggest airline by international passenger traffic. This, Programme Director, proves that despite the current global economic turbulence, this route is set to be a success.

The challenge facing all of us now is to accelerate our collective efforts to market this route and to ensure that all the top tour operators in our respective countries and globally are able to put this route in their packages.

But more importantly, we must also ensure that we attract investment along this route. As the Honourable Minister of Tourism in Swaziland pointed out yesterday, this year, despite the global economic uncertainty, is set to be a recording breaking year in terms of tourism owing to the fact that the United Nations World Tourism Organisation has projected that international arrivals were set to reach 1 billion for the first time in the aviation industry.

We need, therefore, to work doubly hard to ensure that this route also benefits from the knock on effects of these exciting developments within the global economic landscape. We have no doubt that, working in unison; we can be able to achieve this.

Once again allow us to express our gratitude to the people of Swaziland who have been great host to us. As we prepare to leave for Mozambique tomorrow, we will be leaving with many fond memories about this great country and her people.

I thank you.