Remarks by the MEC for Economic Development, Tourism and Environmental Affairs, Michael Mabuyakhulu on the occasion of the launch of the Blythdale Beach Resort Development held in Durban
Programme Director
All Protocols observed
We are honoured to have been invited to this evening’s proceedings where we meet to officially to launch yet another infrastructural milestone, the Blythedale Coastal Resort, in the northern coast of our province.
For a province such as KwaZulu-Natal, with its pleasant year round weather and a unique geographical location along the Indian Ocean, a development of this nature is significant.
We acknowledge with extreme gratitude the R15-billion investment by the Elan Property Group, which, according to initial projections, is expected to yield 10,000 permanent jobs and an additional 100 000 indirect job opportunities over a 10-year period during the various phases of construction.
Ladies and gentlemen, our country, as is the case elsewhere in world, is acutely aware of the pivotal role of tourism as one of the key sectors in the economy and, particularly, as a source of income, job and wealth creation.
This was due to the sector’s ability to churn out positive economic data even during times of generally depressed market conditions. Despite the global economic downturn, the travel and tourism sector has remained resilient as one of the world’s largest economic sectors. According to estimates by the World Travel and Tourism Council, this sector accounted for 103 million jobs in 2014 and, looking ahead, is expected to grow 2% faster than most other major industries and the global economy employment average.
It is against this backdrop that KwaZulu-Natal has moved swiftly to re-examine our tourism products offerings, particularly with a view to bolstering our competitive edge and to gauge what type of beach facilities are viable in the province, as well as the potential markets these could attract.
To this end, we have produced the KwaZulu-Natal Tourism Master Plan and Beach Tourism Policy as a tool to develop a wide beach management programme. The purpose of the policy is three-pronged:
Firstly, it aims to rally all tourism stakeholders – both public and private – to share a common goal of ensuring attractive and safe beaches for tourists.
Secondly, the policy identifies and recommends various Beach Tourism Programmes along the lines of Responsible Tourism that can be developed to stimulate economic development for locals along the coastal towns.
Thirdly, the policy provides an integrated approach to Beach Tourism Development and identifies roles of key stakeholders in achieving the overall objectives of the policy.
Thus, 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.
Our 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 eThekwini 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 in the province.
In essence, and without going into detail regarding our targets, we are poised to escalate the provincial tourism sector’s contribution to the Gross Domestic Product to R111, 6 billion from a 2009 base of just R22 billion, and creating well in excess of 204 775 direct employment opportunities within our provincial tourism sector by the year 2030.
Ladies and gentlemen, in spite of KwaZulu-Natal being well placed to meet the needs of international beach tourists with its natural appeal, the province is not marketed as a beach resort destination, compared to our counterpart destinations, such as Kenya or Zanzibar.
Therefore, through developments such as the Blythdale Coastal Resorts, it is our intention to gradually make inroads into tourism markets that currently favour the aforementioned destinations.
Currently, Blythedale and Royal Palm developments all offer major residential and eco-tourism estates and can be described as being the closest to any beach resort development on the KZN Coastline.
However, we are of the view that KZN’s 580km coastline, stretching from Kosi Bay in the north near the border of Mozambique, to the Mtamvuna Estuary in the South near the border of the Eastern Cape - all offer ample opportunities for beach resort developments.
In conclusion, ladies and gentlemen, we want to say that 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. Thus, we must embark on the understanding that, on rare occasions, our short-term interests might not seem to be the same. In such situations, as stakeholders and roleplayers, we must be guided by the bigger picture - 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 a 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.
Provincial Government recognises the critical need for comprehensive planning and is aware that any plan we have must, by necessity, be aligned to the South Africa’s own overall tourism planning activities, thereby ensuring that, collectively the provinces of this country are seen to be pulling in the same direction and are not at odds with one another. We would also like to encourage other developers to look favourably upon KwaZulu-Natal when considering their investment destination because it is indeed open for business.
I thank you.
