Environmental Affairs & Tourism Minister, Marthinus van Schalkwyk, has launched a draft Tourism Planning Toolkit for local government, aimed at helping municipalities to set up a basic tourism plan.
The Minister announced the toolkit at a Local Government Indaba on Tourism being held at the Cape Town International Convention Centre (CTICC) this week.
He said the toolkit made an important contribution towards advancing competence in tourism planning at local government level and set minimum standards. He said the toolkit was a practical document that:
* Provides research and management systems to help with the obtaining of information, preparation of strategic tourism plans and assessment of their effectiveness.
* Assists local authorities in their strategic and financial planning.
* Helps ensure the appropriate investment in infrastructure and services for tourism.
* Assists with the development of community tourism plans.
* Describes how relevant legislation can be used for sustainable tourism development.
* Provides case studies as examples of good practice.
The Minister also announced a Service Excellence Programme that would be implemented this year in partnership with the Tourism Business Council. He appealed to local government stakeholders to work with the Department of Environment Affairs and Tourism (Deat) to encourage product owners to participate in this training programme.
He said Deat was also finalising a five-year strategy for the tourism sector in response to global economic and local market changes.
