Tourism key to Asgi-SA: Phumzile
8 May 2006"South Africa - are we cool or are we cool!"
With these words South African Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka officially opened Indaba 2006, Africa's premier torism and travel expo, in Durban on Saturday.
In her speech, Mlambo-Ngcuka emphasised the potential tourism had to achieve the goals of the Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative for South Africa (Asgi-SA), which are to boost economic growth to 6% by 2010 and halve poverty and unemployment by 2014. The strategy has identified tourism - with business process outsourcing - as one of the key economic sectors with excellent potential for growth.
Mlambo-Ngcuka said more than 7-million foreign tourists visited South Africa in 2005, and the sector already contributes 7% to the country's gross domestic product.
"While tourism has outperformed all other sectors in the economy, it is not yet saturated," she said.
"We need to create the desperately needed jobs in South Africa. Some of our competitors create one job for every eight foreign arrivals while we create one job for every 12 arrivals - that presents the challenge.
"However, the South African government is cognisant of the importance of an enabling environment for the tourism industry. This includes issues like political stability and security and a reliable and modern infrastructure.
"We are also working on an airlift strategy that will increase air slots in line with demand. Furthermore, we need an efficient and reliable visa regime. In our case, we are working towards a Southern African Development Community (SADC) uni-visa, that will facilitate travel in all of the SADC countries."
2010 - an African event
Referring to the 2010 Soccer World Cup, Mlambo-Ngcuka said
this milestone event will have a huge impact on South African tourism.
"The 2010 Soccer World Cup is not a South African event. We have agreed with Fifa that it will be an African event. All of Africa is invited to showcase itself and to be part of the action.
"We have an interest in growing the South African industry together with the tourism industry in the other countries. It is in our collective interest.
"Investment by the government in preparation for the event includes the building of airport infrastructure, transportation logistics including the Gautrain, the rapid rail link for Johannesburg. Private sector inputs include, for example, an efficient and adequate hotel infrastructure."
Shared growth and development
Mlambo-Ngcuka said the challenges for tourism growth include increasing the volume of tourists from both local and foreign markets, improving the geographic spread within the country beyond the three provinces
that attract the most tourists - KwaZulu-Natal, Gauteng and the Western Cape - and increasing tourist spend in South Africa.
"We are committed to the shared growth and development of this industry," she said. "Tourism is one of the industries where sharing and growth for both the first and second economies is possible, to the benefit of our guests and all South Africans.
"We will continue to step up security, improve transport and all other infrastructure, skills development, airlift, authentic cultural experiences and product variety.
"Above all, South Africa needs foreign ambassadors to tell the untold good African story to the world that remains Afro pessimists. Tourism is indeed our gold, we have to nurture it and make South Africa a must-see for every traveller," Mlambo- Ngcuka said.
Source: Indaba 2006
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