Programme Director,
Deputy Vice Chancellor: Professor Otiano,
Dean of Management Science & TESA President: Dr Balkaran,
HOD for Tourism and Hospitality Department: Dr Mnguni,
Ladies and Gentlemen.
The government at both national and provincial level has realised the immense value of tourism in fighting the triple challenge of unemployment, poverty and inequalities. This realisation led to tourism getting an elevated status in the New Growth Path (NGP), The National Growth Plan, The Provincial Growth and Development Plan, The National Tourism Sector Strategy and the provincial tourism master plan.
In executing the tourism mandate, an independent National Department of Tourism was separated from the erstwhile Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism in 2009. In the same year, the tourism function at a provincial level was strategically moved to the now Department of Economic Development and Tourism. This was done as the KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) government had realised that the tourism Industry has many economic spin-offs that benefit a wide range of direct and indirect tourism industries.
Currently, the tourism industry directly contributes a total of 8% to the provincial Gross Domestic Product (GDP) which translates to R24 billion with an indirect total contribution of R34 billion to the provincial economy. Our conservative projections confirm that the tourism industry will directly contribute approximately R65 billion to the economy of KwaZulu-Natal with an indirect contribution of R98 billion in 2020.
The tourism employment and GDP statistics indicate to us that this industry is one of the major contributors to the economy of the province directly employing a whopping 151 000 people with a total indirect employment of 153 000 locals. However tourism is a dynamic industry with a number of trends emerging all the time. South Africa and KwaZulu-Natal in particular, need to be abreast with these global trends to ensure that we remain apropos to the contemporary tourist as a destination.
These current and future trends affecting the tourism and hospitality industry include, inter alia, environmental sensitivity of destinations; contribution of tourism to climate change; shift of focus from international tourism to regional and domestic tourism; the new technologies that enhance competitiveness; guests’ safety and security issues; the importance of service excellence; the correlation between price and value, and many others.
The hoteliers; tour operators; facility owners and other tourism service providers, need to make a careful analysis of the current and future trends, apply proper adaptations, invest in exceptional services, utilise the new technologies and the social networks, and provide environmentally friendly services to mitigate climate change.
All this has to be based on accurate tourism trends intelligence based on intensive research. There is therefore a dire need for applied research in tourism that seeks to develop new knowledge to ensure the industry keeps up with the trends. Information based on credible research is increasingly becoming invaluable to decision-makers within the tourism industry, for both the public and private sector.
Over the years, as a province, we have been issuing research occasional papers through Tourism KwaZulu-Natal, tracking various tourism trends in the province and the industry as a whole. However, the generation of tourism knowledge in South Africa in general, and KwaZulu-Natal in particular, has up to now, to a large extent been fragmented. The institutions of higher learning on one hand concentrate on generic academic research that is not targeting the new imperatives of modern tourism.
This research is mainly aimed at academic qualification rather than empirical phenomena that are endemic within the industry. Little applied research is commissioned with a view to address contemporary tourism challenges.
The public sector on the other hand is engaged on a number of feasibility studies and business plans that are commissioned at a project specific level. These are mainly based on tourism demand established through market segmentation conducted by government marketing entities such as South African Tourism and Tourism KwaZulu-Natal. However, both the studies conducted by the institutions of higher learning and government are seldom informed by the private sector initiatives.
The private sector end up commissioning their own research to ascertain viability of their intended business ventures. This causes duplication of efforts and achieves very little in terms of modernising the tourism industry and tackling the real industry specific issues.
There needs to be a coordinated approach to tourism research within South Africa and KwaZulu-Natal as tourism destination in particular. This can be achieved through establishing a formidable public-private-partnership whereby the institutions of higher learning can commission applied research that is based on government priorities and is informed by the private sector.
The three partners, namely, public sector, private sector, and institutions of higher learning can come together and determine the tourism research agenda for KwaZulu-Natal thus ensuring that the meagre research resources available are utilised to optimum benefit of all stakeholders.
The research platforms such as this Tourism Educators South Africa (TESA) research conference are an important cradle of assessing quality and relevance of research being conducted by tertiary institutions. This research conference creates networking opportunities to share perspectives on various research topics and issues related to travel, tourism and hospitality. It creates a linkage between government and tertiary institutions to evaluate the current research agenda by various institutions thus scrutinising possibilities to offer suggestions for case- and context-specific research.
Rarely have attempts been made to bring together all the stakeholders that will consume research output from tertiary institutions. This research conference therefore assists tertiary institutions to make informed decisions when approving research topics that have value for wider consumption than to commission research that will remain stale in university libraries after students have graduated with their degrees.
This platform therefore calls for greater dialogue around the relative priority placed on the topics chosen by students when they conduct their academic research, especially at a post-graduate level. It must also extend the discussion to other influential industry and professional tourism and hospitality organizations to engage with practical industry specific contemporary issues.
This in turn will contribute in facilitating the establishment of research agenda priorities, and suggest specific directions for research investigations. The National Department of Tourism has already started engaging tertiary institutions and other research institutes throughout the country to discuss tourism research at a strategic level.
The topical issues discussed at this National Research Forum include issues of tourism indicators that need to be adopted when crunching tourism statistics. Currently Statistics South Africa and South African Tourism conduct research that provide us with statistics at a national level. However these two organisations use different research methods with different indicators.
The result is that we have different statistics on key indicators such as international arrivals and domestic tourism. A decision has been made at a national level that the two organisations need to merge their research and agree on research methodology and indicators when developing tourism statistics. The irony is that the tertiary institutions have not picked up this discrepancy in tourism statistics, and together with other research institutes they have relied on information with inconsistencies.
It is therefore incumbent on institutions of higher learning to work hand-in-hand withgovernment to ensure that proper tourism information is generated and that efficient systems of tourism knowledge management are in place. It is however commendable that some of the tertiary institutions within KwaZulu-Natal, such as the University of Zululand serve in the National Research Forum.
Currently the National Department of Tourism, in discussions with the provincial Department of Economic Development and Tourism, has funded an applied research on Rural Tourism Routes currently being conducted by the University of Zululand.
The University has chosen to conduct this research on the R66 Zulu Heritage Route which covers Uthungulu and Zululand District Municipalities, and the King Shaka Heritage Route which meanders within Ilembe District Municipality. This research is a perfect example of how government and tertiary institutions can collaborate on tourism research.
The findings of these two studies will assist the national, provincial and local government in understanding the socio-economic impacts of rural tourism routes and help in facilitating decision-making on necessary interventions to be provided to rural tourism routes. If the University of Zululand does us proud as a province and come up with a well-researched study with practical recommendations, the findings of the studies will be replicated to other rural tourism routes throughout the country.
To the students who will be presenting papers over the two days of this conference “well done!” Conducting research is a tedious, physically and mentally straining exercise. It is a lonely journey that needs personal sacrifices, both financially and in your personal relationships. You have traversed that journey and now you are reaping due rewards. However, you have not reached the end of your journey yet. The tourism industry needs your skills.
We do not have many tourism researchers. The industry is struggling with finding seasoned researchers, especially when it comes to forecasting tourism growth. We need young and energetic researchers who will focus on Tourism Economics, professionals who will develop new tourism forecasting models that take into consideration our unique African tourism offerings. You must not only look for employment.
But also consider establishing your own research companies with tourism specialisation. Opportunities of doing commissioned research are endless with both the private and public sector. We need new innovations in the industry and you are our hope for greater things to come.
