The recommendations of the panel of experts tasked with reviewing SA Tourism has been released. The recommendations are aimed at strengthening SA Tourism’s institutional capacity and guiding its future strategic direction.
Tourism Minister Derek Hanekom said on Friday he will engage the SA Tourism Board on the process for implementing the recommendations aimed at enhancing SA Tourism’s initiatives to market South Africa as a prime tourist destination.
“The panel’s recommendations will help the country to grow its competitive edge in the global tourism marketplace, and will also promote domestic tourism,” said the Minister. He was satisfied that the review panel, which included tourism, governance and marketing experts, had achieved its objectives and fulfilled its mandate.
The Minister thanked the board, management and staff of SA Tourism for embracing and participating in the review process. He further thanked the review panel headed by Valli Moosa for identifying matters for consideration in moving the organisation forward.
A summary of the key recommendations includes:
• A call for greater collaboration between the private sector and SA Tourism to increase South Africa’s global tourism market share.
• The need to innovate and revitalise SA Tourism’s marketing campaigns to keep pace with a fast-changing marketplace. Marketing enhancements that are proposed include, amongst others, enhanced collaboration with Brand SA to collectively promote the country and a greater focus on domestic tourism.
• A strengthened Department of Tourism is identified as essential to facilitating effective intergovernmental coordination in support of the tourism growth objectives.
• Certain aspects of SA Tourism’s organisational development and design, including the country office model, are recommended for an in-depth review to enhance the effective delivery of the marketing mandate.
• A new institutional home is proposed for the Tourism Grading Council of South Africa.
• Greater resourcing of the research function and an increased focus on research insights, analytics and market intelligence is recommended.
Minister Hanekom said a fully optimised SA Tourism was essential for the transformation and sustainable growth of the sector, and for tourism to achieve the National Development Goal target of creating 225 000 jobs by 2020.
“It is critical that the tourism sector maintains and grows its global competitiveness, enabling tourism to continue making its overall contribution of 9.5% of the country’s GDP and supporting 10% of total employment,” said Hanekom. “I am confident that the expert advice provided by the panel will help us to make the correct strategic decisions as we market our remarkable country to the world and provide our visitors with memorable experiences.”
The full report can be viewed here.
