Affairs and Tourism at the annual Tourism conference, Sandton Convention
Centre
29 October 2007
Aviation is the key to tourism growth
Introduction
Our arrival statistics of the past year amplifies the fact that we have
ignited the South African brand and we are using it to set alight the
possibilities. From China to Paris, from New York to Nairobi the word is out,
South Africa is the place where everything is possible, and all people are
welcome.
I therefore believe the three crucial outcomes of this conference focusing
on aviation and tourism should be on how do we make it possible to get more
tourists, more spend per tourist and a better spread of tourism across our
provinces.
Tourism growth and air markets
Our tourism growth strategy, spanning three years from 2008 to 2010 has
identified key markets for South Africa. This has been achieved by in depth
research and we now know which markets are mature, ready to explore South
Africa and which are developing markets ready to be tapped. Our key to growth
in the tourism industry is aviation.
We have nine core air markets that we have identified that account for 55%
of all arrivals of international tourists in South Africa. They are Australia,
France, Germany, India, Kenya, Nigeria, Netherlands, United Kingdom and the
United States of America. What is interesting is that they spend 61% of the
foreign spend in our country.
Last year we welcomed more than 8,3 million tourists to our country. We
however have enormous potential to grow our industry as there are over 76
million tourists that have been identified as our potential market. What makes
this number very significant is that the 76 million tourists identified are
just from the nine core air markets. A whole other world out there is also
waiting to visit South Africa. When we delve further into the statistics we see
that 27,6% of all tourists arrive by air. This represents 2,3 million tourists
in total brought to our shores by our partners in aviation. These facts speak
for themselves and they are the rationale for focusing on partnering with the
aviation industry.
We believe that tourists from air markets could double if we have more
flights, the right packaging, the right connectivity, competitive pricing and
the right partnership with the aviation industry.
Airlift challenges
Thus far, the implementation of the airlift strategy, the result of a strong
partnership between our department, South African Tourism, the Department of
Transport and the private sector, has shown impressive increases in capacity to
bring tourists to South Africa. Between September 2006 and January this year,
rights for almost 1,4 million additional seats per year were secured on the
network. I know that Minister Jeff Radebe will talk more about this
initiative.
There is no doubt that the competition that has been created with more
flights to our country, coupled with the introduction of low cost, no frills
carriers internally has resulted in South Africa becoming more competitive.
Despite the great strides we have made, we need to further advance our
competitiveness if we want to close the price gap. As an example I would like
to mention that you can fly from London to Sydney, a 23 hour flight for 40%
less that you can fly 11 hours from London to Johannesburg. We understand that
the markets are different and the volumes of passengers might be different, but
we believe the potential tourist does not see it this way.
Our potential market knows how to look for value for money and we have got
to make sure that we provide it. And this requires a stronger alliance between
the tourism and aviation sectors.
In growing our destination we need to enhance the way we package South
Africa with other African countries. Our internal connectivity also needs to be
focused on ways to utilise the total range of our airports. This will result in
us being able to move tourists from the more obvious destinations into the
hinterland of South Africa and create a totally new holiday experience for them
in the process.
The massive development going on at our airports must be welcomed as this
will increase capacity and ensure better service to our tourists.
Job creation
Tourism's total contribution to job creation by 2006 amounted to 947 530
jobs. This was an increase of 9,6% over 2005.
This is the reason why the tourism industry has been given such high
priority in terms of Acceleration Shared Growth for Africa's Development
(AsgiSA) plan to reduce poverty and unemployment, and to raise the level of
economic growth. Tourism's estimated contribution to Gross Domestic Product
(GDP) increased from 4,6% in 1993 to 8,3% in 2006. However, we are ambitious
and would like to see the GDP contribution of tourism rise to 12% by 2014. We
are confident that we can build on the achievements of a solid partnership
between government, the statutory bodies and the tourism industry.
Jobs and business opportunities created in tourism have special significance
for economies such as ours. They help to spread opportunities beyond our major
metropolitan areas to rural areas. They create incentives, not only to remain
in rural areas, but also to develop, take pride in, and showcase local
hospitality and culture.
For every 12 international tourists who visit our country, we create one job
in our country. And our goal is to get this down to eight tourists creating one
job.
Conclusion
These goals are not going to be achieved in isolation. It is going to take
realistic partnerships, effective collaboration, significant innovation and a
spirit of total co-operation. In essence what this conference is all about.
In preparing for this conference we are focusing on four commissions today,
these are:
* the role of carriers in growing the tourism markets
* inter-modal transport and infrastructure
* safety and security at airports
* knowledge generation and management.
Ladies and gentlemen, we have over 400 people in this room drawn from a
diverse range of activities and with a diverse knowledge and experience base.
We need your thinking today. We need to hear your opinions.
Through better understanding, we can all make better decisions, and
ultimately we need to align our thinking into a common framework, a common
purpose and a common vision.
I would like to thank you for committing to this conference and seeing the
partnership between tourism and aviation as a top priority.
Ladies and gentlemen, enjoy the day and once again welcome to our annual
national tourism conference.
Enquiries:
Riaan Aucamp
Cell: 083 778 9923
Issued by: Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism
29 October 2007
