Western Cape forges the way with innovative new tourism model.
Today I would like to set a new challenge: to raise our visitor arrivals by 15 percent by 2015. This requires a collective effort and therefore a complete overhaul of how we market ourselves.
I am honoured to address you on this 32nd day before the kickoff of the 2010 FIFA World Cup. With so little time left, I am pleased to see that infrastructure plans are being wrapped up; our airport, which recently won an award for being the best airport in Africa, is ready and South Africans across the country are gearing up to show our tourists that we have the most spirit of any country to host the Cup thus far.
Recent statistics released by South African Tourism confirmed that while the recession caused a global drop in tourism markets of four percent last year, tourism to Africa bucked the trend and grew by nearly four percent. Tourism to South Africa contributed over R189 billion to our gross domestic product (GDP).
Notwithstanding these achievements, the Western Cape tourism industry has been through a rather rocky period. Last year June, we put together a task team consisting of city and province representatives, who began to pave the way forward for a brand new, politically immune destination marketing model that we believe will pave the way forward for tourism marketing in South Africa. The emphasis of this plan was on finding new ways to foster cooperation and market ourselves with our collective resources. I am pleased to deliver this plan to you today.
Section 4A of the Constitution lists tourism as a functional area of concurrent national and provincial competence. Schedule 4B of the Constitution identifies local tourism as a local government functional area.
Our major achievements are:
- A single brand encompassing city, regional and provincial destinations
- A single tourism marketing strategy, which demonstrates seamless coordination among South Africa Tourism, the province and regional and local tourism organisations, with the business plans of the organisations aligned to deliver against this single Western Cape tourism marketing strategy
- A single destination marketing organisation at provincial level for tourism marketing and promotion, with clearly defined roles, actions, deliverables and measures.
To support the above, the destination marketing organisation will receive a new name and a new, more representative 16 seat board, made up of a Chief executive Officer, province and city's previous officials, one seat for the destination marketing organisation, one for the Cape Metropole, five for the district municipalities, and six public representatives with tourism qualifications and background.
We are currently in the process of finalising a memorandum of agreement between the provincial government and the City of Cape Town. This will be followed by a service level agreement between the City of Cape Town and Cape Town Routes Unlimited (CTRU) for the 2010/11 financial year. We need similar processes to take place with the five district municipalities. After such time, together we will appoint an independent team to develop the Western Cape Tourism marketing strategy for the destination.
I would like to extend my thanks to the Western Cape tourism industry and the team at Cape Town Routes Unlimited (CTRU), who have worked very hard over the past five years and have made significant accomplishments. CTRU has represented the destination at 48 international tourism consumer and trade shows and engaged some 8 500 tour operators directly. It has managed to secure 24 joint marketing agreements to the value of R836 million on these shows, adding significant value to the local industry.
It has also supported 367 city and provincial events which have boosted the attractiveness of our location to visitors. These projects have also supported local economic development.
CTRU's Conventions Bureau has prepared and submitted 83 bids to host conferences in the Western Cape. It won 48 bids, mostly (95 percent) for the Cape Town International Convention Centre (CTICC). Collectively, these bids had a conservatively stated economic impact of R950 million on the Western Cape economy.
