Programme Director,
Honoured guests,
Ladies and gentlemen,
All protocol observed.
On behalf of the Provincial Government of KwaZulu-Natal and the people of our province, we welcome you all to the 2013 instalment of the KwaZulu-Natal Tourism Indaba Breakfast. This important event has evolved into a not-to-be-missed platform where all stakeholders in the tourism industry meet ahead of Indaba which we will officially open this afternoon.
Critically, this platform affords the leaders and decision makers in the tourism sector to come together to initiate discussions on matters of mutual importance; matters which have a direct bearing on the growth and development of a business sector about which we are most passionate, ahead of the promise of frenetic business dealings during the ensuing four days, as Tourism Indaba 2013 runs its course.
As the province of KwaZulu-Natal, we are especially pleased to have become the regular hosts of Tourism Indaba, a trade show which has grown to become one of the largest tourism marketing initiatives in Africa and one which is widely regarded as part of the top four ‘must visit’ tourism trade shows globally.
Tourism Indaba has been in existence for 34 years, since its inception in 1979. In this time, Durban, KwaZulu-Natal has been privileged to have hosted the show no fewer than 24 times.
We are convinced that it is due to the manner in which we have grown the Tourism Indaba over the years that we have been given the rights to host this trade show until 2015.
This, we believe, speaks volumes about our province’s ability to successfully host major international events and the competence of our tourism role-players in ensuring world-standard deliverables for the benefit of our broad tourism sector.
Indeed, we proudly regard our long-term hosting of Tourism Indaba as a particularly noteworthy advantage because it provides national and international participants with the opportunity for immediate and meaningful engagement with our destination and its experiences, well beyond the confines of the trade show environment.
We are most confident that, as with past events, Tourism Indaba 2013 will live up to its billing as a major generator of business for South African tourism trade representatives, while providing exceptional value for both local and international buyers. Last year’s event attracted no fewer than 1 312 exhibiting companies and 1 872 international visitors from 88 countries in Africa, Europe, the Americas, Asia, Australasia and the Middle East.
We are proud that this year’s Indaba has attracted no fewer than 1350 exhibitors and 3 000 buyers. We welcome all of them to our beautiful province and wish them a fruitful and enjoyable stay. (still awaiting confirmation of figures from TKZN).
Programme director, our optimism regarding the growth of Indaba and, by extension, of the tourism industry in our continent, is based on many points but we will just highlight two interlinked points to make our case. The first one has to do with the fact that despite the devastating effect that the 2008/09 global economic downturn had on the so-called “first world or established economies, mainly in the north”, economies on the African continent bucked the trend and continued to grow.
The attractiveness of the African economies to investors means that we have been presented with an opportunity to leverage on this current favourable epoch to accelerate socio-economic development and, in our case, to grow the tourism sector. An article which appeared in The Economist in March this year held that:
“A booming economy has made a big difference. Over the past ten years real income per person has increased by more than 30%, whereas in the previous 20 years it shrank by nearly 10%. Africa is the world’s fastest-growing continent just now. Over the next decade its GDP is expected to rise by an average of 6% a year, not least thanks to foreign direct investment. FDI has gone from $15 billion in 2002 to $37 billion in 2006 and $46 billion in 2012”.
Since tourism depends mainly on the disposable income and with the growth in FDI inflows into the continent, we can safely argue that the sector is either on the cusp of or already experiencing a boom. The fundamental question for us therefore is: “Are we, as role-players and stakeholders in the tourism sector in Africa, ready to cash in on this boom and utilise the tourism sector to address socio-economic challenges?”
Our response to this problem statement will determine the fate of the tourism sector in our continent and the space that African tourism occupies in the world. The second point which informs our sense of optimism about the tourism sector and Tourism Indaba, stems from the global statistics that have proven the resilience of the tourism sector.
Following the economic downturn of 2008/09, it was widely speculated that the tourism sector, because of its reliance on disposable income, would be the first casualty of a global economy where belt-tightening would be the norm. Yet, the sector was not as badly-affected as feared.
In fact, the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC), forecasts that by 2023, travel and tourism will account for 10% of the global GDP, about $10,5 US dollars, and one in ten jobs will be created by the tourism sector. Further, the WTTC forecasts that, over the next decade, travel and tourism will add over 70 million jobs.
If we take these statistics which have a global outlook and look at the objective economic realities of the African continent, then we are compelled to fashion responses to the opportunities that have presented themselves with a view to growing the tourism sectors. The stakeholders in this room this morning are collectively and individually expected to come up with these responses.
This is a fundamental question for the 2013 instalment of Tourism Indaba. As you are aware, this is a business environment which involves hundreds of millions of people traversing the world on an annual basis. There can be no question, then, that tourism is a major driver of economic growth and development; this is a sector making a far-reaching economic impact, an impact which is felt throughout the world, including South Africa and KwaZulu-Natal.
It goes without saying, then, that competition for ever greater slices of the global tourism market is intense. Those countries and regions which plan best to maximise their tourism potential and – critically – put into place the necessary interventions to implement such plans will be the areas which are successful in growing their tourism market share.
It should be remembered that the best plans in the world will be rendered useless unless their timely, correct and sustained implementation follows. Most critical, though, is that the success of any destination is dependent on how the stakeholders work together for the attainment of a common objective.
The private sector; the public sector; civil society; the labour movement as well as independent groups are duty-bound to work together for the accelerated growth and development of the tourism industry. This we must undertake understanding that, on rare occasions, our short-term interests might not seem to be the same. In such situations, as stakeholders and role players, we must be guided by the bigger picture, by our collective long-term objectives, by what we ultimately want to achieve as a collective.
As the provincial government of KwaZulu-Natal, we have no doubt that we have to create enabling conditions for the tourism sector to thrive. We are aware that we must have forward-looking policy; create a stable socio-political environment and avail ourselves to assist in cases where the sector’s success translates to addressing the challenges that we face including unemployment, poverty and inequality.
The government of KwaZulu-Natal recognises the critical need for comprehensive planning and, indeed, are most aware that any plan we have in place must, by necessity, be aligned to the country’s own overall tourism planning activities, so ensuring that collectively the provinces that make up South Africa are seen to be pulling in the same direction and are not at odds with one another, or the country.
Accordingly, we have spent considerable time and invested significant resources in developing a detailed tourism plan for KwaZulu-Natal. In so doing, we followed a fully-consultative process, involving the private sector, in a concerted effort to ensure that the final plan would be regarded as all-inclusive and enjoy widespread acceptance and buy-in as the most positive, productive and business-like way forward.
In creating the KwaZulu-Natal Tourism Master Plan, our point of departure was the National Tourism Sector Strategy. The South African Government has recognised tourism to be one of this country’s leading economic drivers and has, accordingly, singled out tourism as one of six priority sectors capable of impacting significantly on our economy and its growth potential.
The National Tourism Sector Strategy was, therefore, specifically developed to make certain that there exist clear-cut programmes capable of advancing tourism development in this country. For our part, we were at pains to ensure that we closely aligned our provincial thought processes and plan development in such a manner that our final plan would be seen to complement this overall national strategy.
It was our intent, from the very outset, that our KwaZulu-Natal Tourism Master Plan
should effectively steer our regional tourism industry onto a development trajectory which would give effect to global recognition of our province as the African continent's top beach destination, with the added attraction of a unique blend of wildlife, scenic and heritage experiences.
In addition and given the existence of KwaZulu-Natal’s Provincial Growth and Development Strategy, we worked diligently to make certain that our Tourism Master Plan was a perfect fit with the objectives of our whole provincial strategy document. The end result, ladies and gentlemen, is the introduction now of a KwaZulu-Natal Tourism Master Plan, which is fully-aligned to the Provincial Growth and Development Strategy and which sets ambitious targets to 2030.
This is a strategy which, we are pleased to say, brings together Provincial Government, Local Government , the Private Sector, Civic Society and Labour in a totally synergistic manner for the collective advancement of KwaZulu-Natal’s tourism activities and the development of all our provincial tourism stakeholders, emerging and established.
Going forward, Tourism KwaZulu-Natal will become increasingly involved in partnerships with airlines in order to promote airlift initiatives on behalf of the province. It will also set-out to create a greater number of business alliances with tour operators to boost brand awareness levels, while enhancing its work with my own department as we gear ourselves to attract ever more major events to KwaZulu-Natal, so contributing significantly to the business and events tourism sub-sector.
Ladies and Gentlemen, so comprehensive, so all-inclusive and so bold is the KwaZulu-Natal Tourism Master Plan that we can justifiably claim to be extremely serious about taking our provincial tourism sector to an altogether new level, moving forward. This is a declaration of real and meaningful intent.
The fundamental objective is to employ a series of guiding principles to achieve our 2030 vision; that of transforming KwaZulu-Natal, ensuring that it becomes world-renowned as Africa’s top beach destination, with a unique blend of wildlife, scenic and heritage experiences for all visitors.
Guiding principles include public-private sector collaboration, meeting demand-led development potential, ensuring a responsible tourism approach, geographically spreading tourism’s benefits, growing both visitor numbers and yields, taking a focused approach to tourism development – growing from Durban and our coastal beaches, as the core and, lastly, delivering for visitors exemplary customer service experiences.
The Master Plan encourages further and significant improvement to our province’s growing niche tourism experiences and for the substantial development of our already world-class events, meetings and exhibitions – or MICE – sector; a sector which we all regard as being key to tourism development here.
In essence and without going into great detail regarding our targets, we are poised now to escalate the provincial tourism sector’s contribution to Gross Domestic Product to R111,6 billion from a 2009 base of just R22,0 billion and creating well in excess of 204 775 direct employment opportunities within our provincial tourism sector by the year 2030.
We also aim to significantly increase the number of domestic arrivals in KwaZulu-Natal by placing greater emphasis on this, our core market, by making it more accessible to all. Regional arrivals will be supported with efforts to increase air connectivity, while from an international arrivals perspective we will concentrate on sustaining our presence in core markets, while vigorously pursuing identified new markets.
We would also add that our KwaZulu-Natal Tourism Master Plan targets are aligned to the National Tourism Sector Strategy. In conclusion, ladies and gentlemen, I would like to share with you the fact that the KwaZulu-Natal Master Plan identifies a number of iconic and catalytic projects which I believe you will find to be of interest.
These projects are designed to make a significant visual impact and will have the effect of changing perceptions, enhancing the overall destination KwaZulu-Natal experience for visitors. Some of these projects include our exploration of the Drakensberg Cable Car, cementing the scenic experience and sheer majesty of this dramatic mountain range for visitors.
We have no doubt that, were the project to get the all clear from all relevant stakeholders, it would be a game-changer for tourism in our province. The project would see our province, the Free State province as well as Lesotho collaborate on what would, undoubtedly, be the biggest tourism development in our region.
In this regard, we are pleased to announce that in the next month we will be receiving a preliminary report on the feasibility of the project from a team of our appointed experts. Once we have studied the contents of the report, we will move with the necessary speed to finalise the project should the report inform us as such.
Another iconic development being planned is a Bluff Bridge, connecting the Bluff with the new Point development at Durban’s harbour entrance. This will deliver a clear statement to the world that Durban, at the heart of KwaZulu-Natal, is a progressive city. Its impact is destined to be similar to that of the well-known Sydney Harbour Bridge or San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge and will become a tourist attraction in its own right.
Given our success in the burgeoning MICE tourism sector, we are also looking to develop a second International Convention Centre on the North Coast, together with the creation of a clever cultural monument, following an architectural and engineering approach, for installation on the breakwater at Durban’s harbour entrance.
Lastly, we want to develop a statue of King Shaka of significant size to reflect our iconic Zulu heritage. Such a statue will incorporate visitor facilities and culturally-related experiences.
In closing, ladies and gentlemen, we would stress again that we in KwaZulu-Natal take the subject of tourism extremely seriously. I think the lengths we go to actively promote provincial tourism generally and the wonderful and varied attributes of destination KwaZulu-Natal specifically are mirrored in the fact that we have so regularly won the right to host the superb trade show that is Tourism Indaba.
That commitment, that determination to make and maintain KwaZulu-Natal as a leading and preferred tourism destination, nationally and internationally, has been given new impetus with the advent of the introduction of the KwaZulu-Natal Tourism Master Plan. We have, without question, achieved much in past years in the field of provincial tourism development and promotion.
That effort has provided the sound foundation and launch-pad for our carefully planned and orchestrated tourism initiative efforts into the future. We are now on an altogether new growth trajectory where the sky is the limit. As tourism’s businessleaders and decision-makers, I leave you with an invitation.... join us as we take tourism in KwaZulu-Natal to an all-new level in the hearts and minds of world trade representatives and travellers.
KwaZulu-Natal is truly exceptional!
Thank you!
