The Department of Tourism has asked the industry to help formulate a skills development program that will see young South Africans being placed in overseas markets.

Starting next year, working with the industry, candidates will be given immersion language training while they learn hard tourism skills and at the same time the culture of the host country.

In answer to a question about skills development at the SATSA conference in George, the Department’s Minister, Derek Hanekom, asked for input on the idea of sending 20 people a year to key existing or developing markets. He mentioned Germany, China, France, Italy and Russia.

The Minister cited the example of how the Voortrekker Monument was attracting large numbers of Chinese tourists but that their experience would be much better if there was a South African guide who could speak Chinese. If 20 people could be placed overseas in each of these markets a year then in five years there could be an additional 500 foreign-language speaking South Africans who had a good understanding of the culture of key source markets.

Hanekom also said the Department was going to do a skills audit which would include looking at what training was available. He appealed to SATSA to help with a tourism needs analyses to identify the industry’s real needs. He was also aware that that the Skills Development Levy needed to work better for tourism.