COMMENTS on the Government’s draft Tourism Growth Strategy need to reach the Department of Environmental Affairs & Tourism by February to enable the department to finalise the document by March and to the publish an action plan thereafter.

This was announced by Deat’s deputy director-general: tourism, Sindiswa Nhlumayo, at the Local Government Indaba on Tourism being held in Cape Town this week.

She said South Africa had had no integrated tourism growth strategy since the Tourism White Paper of 1996.  The new draft Tourism Growth Strategy aimed to integrate a currently fragmented tourism sector and align it to domestic and global demands. It aimed to unlock investment; innovation; wider participation in tourism; capacity building; cut red tape; facilitate resource allocation; a willingness to co-operate; and confidence to collaborate.

“If we get it right, tourism by 2014 will generate R218bn to GDP, host 12,8m tourists and provide 1,22m jobs,” she said.

To achieve this, local governments needed to understand the benefits of tourism and needed to lead destination management on the ground. Restraints that needed to be overcome included the global economic impact; crime; lack of funding, co-operation and accessibility; and poor service levels.

Nhlumayo said, even though South Africa was enjoying above-average tourism growth, there remained certain shortcomings:
* The country had not always identified the right partners to drive tourism growth, which was not always shared by all.
* The country had not strengthened the role of local government.
* South Africa had a very seasonal product.
* It had not harvested the full potential of its product offering.
* Tourism spread was unequal across the provinces and there was a decline in the length of stay, impacting on spending.
International influences the tourism growth strategy must adapt to include:
* The global recession
* International competition
* Aviation capacity, which is still a concern
* Climate change
* Exchange rate fluctuations
* Risk management around natural disasters and political instability.

Domestic influences the tourism growth strategy needs to consider include:
* Sector profitability
* Transformation
* Seasonality
* Unskilled labour
* Local infrastructure
* Poor domestic air links and capacity
* Sustainability linked to climate change; and
* A fragmented tourism industry.