Analysis of the State of the Nation Address in respect of impact on tourism: briefing by Parliamentary Research Unit and University of Western Cape

Meeting report

The Chairperson at the outset of the meeting informed all present that he would have to be excused from the meeting for a brief period as his presence was required in a meeting convened for chairpersons of committees. Mr L Khorai (ANC) would chair the meeting in his absence.

University of the Western Cape: Department of Geography and Environmental Studies
Professor Daniel Tevera, Head, Department of Geography and Environmental Studies and Mr Mark Boekstein, Lecturer, Department of Geography and Environmental Studies provided the Committee with a thematic analysis of the 2013 State of the Nation Address focussing on tourism.
In his 2013 State of the Nation Address (SONA) President Jacob Zuma emphasised that unemployment, poverty and inequality were major national challenges. The presenters highlighted some tourism trends. For example for every sixteen tourist arrivals one job was created in South Africa. The President made repeated references to the National Development Plan.
The SONA only made two direct references to tourism:
“We identified tourism as one of our drivers”
“ Tourist arrivals grew at an impressive 10.7% between January and September 2012, Which is higher than the global average of 4% for last year”
They felt as did many of their colleagues that the SONA could have focussed more on tourism so that tourism could perhaps be mobilised for poverty reduction and job creation.
The Committee was reminded of the National Department of Tourism’s Strategic Plan for the period 2011/12-2015/16. Key questions that needed to be asked was what government should do to develop tourism in order to increase the share of tourism income to local communities and low income groups as well as to promote direct economic participation by the poor in the tourism sector.
Two types of tourism strategies were referred to in the SONA. The first was heritage tourism and the second was pro-poor tourism. Reference to cultural heritage in the SONA was indicative of government’s intention to promote this type of tourism. Pro-poor tourism on the other hand had the potential to unlock opportunities for economic gain and other livelihood benefits for the poor.
Some of the challenges associated with tourism were also highlighted. These include:

●Transformation – promote cultural tourism
●Distribution – extend to less developed provinces
●Seasonality
●Risk management
●Sustainability – especially positioning and re-positioning the brand
●Competitiveness – how to achieve differentiation, especially our cultural assets

The presenters made the following conclusions and recommendations:
●Emphasis should have been placed on the inter-sectoral linkages between tourism and national development strategies
●Heritage tourism needs to be intricately linked with cultural preservation and poverty reduction
●There is need for a specific and coherent set of planned interventions for mainstreaming a pro poor approach across the tourism sector.
●There is a great need for quantitative information on the links between tourism and infrastructure, agriculture and natural resources.
●Tourism is not necessarily the panacea but has the potential to contribute to economic development and poverty reduction in South Africa

Analysis of the State of the Nation Address (SONA) 2013
Mr Sibusiso Khuzwayo, Committee Content Advisor, made a presentation on the 2013 SONA relating to its impact on tourism. He pointed out that the SONA had both direct and indirect connotations for the tourism industry. The President had mentioned the NDP frequently in his Address. The NDP had a target of creating eleven million jobs by 2030 and required the economy to grow three fold in order to do so. On the other hand the tourism industry had developed its own National Tourism Sector Strategy (NTSS) which had set its own targets spanning from 2010 to 2020. There was therefore a need to align the projections and indicators in the NTSS to the NDP targets. It necessitated the extension of the targets in the NTSS from 2020 to 2030. He conceded that it was a difficult task given the length of period. The President had mentioned a number of infrastructure projects that government had started to implement but no mention was made of any tourism specific project that had been implemented in spite of the fact that tourism was declared as one of the six economic pillars in South Africa. This therefore called for a strategic engagement with the Presidential Infrastructure Co-ordinating Committee (PICC) to ensure that some catalytic tourism infrastructure projects were funded. The President also appealed to the private sector to absorb 11 000 Further Education and Training graduates who were awaiting placement. The Committee needed to ascertain how youth employment incentives would be accessed in the tourism industry. The National Department of Tourism (NDT) had to ensure that the youth employment incentives were accessible for tourism. As previously mentioned the President had alluded to the impressive growth that had taken place in tourist arrivals during 2012. There was a need to standardise tourism figures as figures from Statistics SA and SA Tourism often differed. The President spoke about quality learning and teaching. Relating to tourism the private sector often complained that tourism graduates did not meet job market standards. It therefore called for a dialogue between the NDT, the Department of Basic Education, the Department of Higher Learning and the Culture, Arts, Tourism and Heritage Sector Skills Training Authority (CATHSSETA) to determine appropriate curriculum that would improve quality tourism education. The re-opening of the lodgement of restitution claims by people who had missed the 31 December 1998 deadline was mooted by the President. Some prime tourism land that had been returned to communities had been returned without support programmes to invest and develop the land.
The President also highlighted crimes against women and children and how it had attracted worldwide media attention. The negative reports tarnished the image of South Africa as a safe tourist destination. SA Tourism and Brand SA needed to intensify their marketing campaigns to right the image of South Africa. The SONA alluded that South Africa had just hosted a successful Africa Cup of Nations Tournament. The Committee needed to engage with the newly established National Conventions Bureau to ascertain if the mandate of the bureau could not be extended to include working with the Department of Sports and Recreation to bid for mega sporting events such as the Olympics.
In conclusion Mr Khuzwayo consolidated recommendations made in his presentation into a list. Members felt the recommendations made would be helpful to the Committee in performing its work.

Discussion
Mr L Khorai (ANC) noted that co-operation was needed between various government departments on tourism issues.

Mr R Shah (DA) stated that the Committee should not be despondent that President Jacob Zuma had not directly said much about tourism in his SONA.

Mr Shah then raised various concerns the first of which was that the NTSS targets were only projected up until 2020 whereas the NDP targets were projected till 2030. The two sets of targets should correlate with each other. The NTSS targets could simply not be stretched to 2030. The crucial issue was what scientific tools were going to be used to extend the targets up until 2030. Another concern was that enabling legislation was needed to promote tourism. For example there could be environmental legislation that impacted upon tourism. As a consequence whatever policies were developed for tourism other government departments needed to come on board. Co-operation across government departments were needed. Another example was that roads infrastructure was needed in order to access tourist sites. Heritage and cultural sites were often found in rural areas and there were in many instances no proper roads to access them.

Mr Shah also spoke about a businessman who had bought a defunct coastal tourist resort and was fighting an uphill battle with the local municipality and another government department regarding outstanding municipal accounts and fines attached to the property. Why was there so much red tape for a person who was clearly going to create jobs for persons in the area? In order for tourism to flourish greater co-ordination was needed between government departments which needed to be backed up by enabling legislation.

Mr Khuzwayo agreed that extending the projections of the NTSS to 2030 would be a difficult task. The NTSS as it was now still had gaps because benchmarking had not been done. However work had already started to address the issue but unfortunately not all the NTSS’s projections could be extrapolated to 2030.It was correct that tourism was affected by a great deal of legislation. Transport legislation impacted upon tourist guides. Another example was that Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) legislation had regulations which placed limitations on the building of lodges. There were many examples where legislation perhaps negatively affected tourism and the Committee perhaps needed to lobby for the relaxation of certain pieces of legislation.

Mr Khuzwayo said that in as much as there were projects by government to address the issues of infrastructure, it was important for the Committee to look at infrastructure which unlocked tourism projects. The Committee could perhaps invite the Presidential Infrastructure Co-ordinating Commission to make a presentation on the projects that had been submitted to them.

Prof Tevera agreed that infrastructure was important for the success of tourism. Having no roads to access a tourist destination was a huge problem. It was a challenge which needed to be resolved.
 
Ms M Njobe (ANC) referred to the lack of rail infrastructure in South Africa and said that travel by rail had simply stopped. Very little rail transport was used to travel between cities. Trains were mainly still used within cities. The use of rail transport could be welcomed by tourists. Members of the Committee had tried to highlight the issue.

Ms Njobe referred to the fact that in SA for every sixteen tourists arriving one new job was created. In countries like Brazil and Thailand the figure was much higher. What could South Africa do to raise the number of jobs created? She pointed out that if tourism income needed to be shared with a bias towards the pro-poor how was it to be done? Building up to the 2010 FIFA World Cup smaller cities had complained that the bigger provinces like Gauteng, the Western Cape and Kwazulu-Natal had a monopoly over tourists. She asked whether there were any suggestions on what could be done to address the issue. Tourists needed to be encouraged to visit other areas as well. The curriculum of tourism courses on offer also needed to be relooked at. Persons should be capacitated with skills that the industry needed. When the Committee had undertaken an international trip to Mexico the tour guide showing members around was a university graduate. In South Africa most of the tour guides had a Standard Eight qualification. She asked the academics how the change in curriculum at university level could contribute positively towards the tourism industry.

Ms Njobe also noted that in South African hotels and restaurants one hardly came across locals being employed. Most of the staff was foreigners. A taxi driver had recently complained to her that during the 2013 African Cup of Nations most of the taxis used to transport tourists to and from matches were big companies like Avis. The smaller independent taxi drivers hardly benefited. Something also needed to be done about the negative image which tourists had of South Africa because of crime and the violence associated with it. She also agreed that targets of the NTSS and the NDP needed to be aligned.

Mr Boekstein spoke to the tourism curriculum issue and said that Further Education and Training Colleges as well as Universities of Technologies had close links with the tourism industry. It was the mainstream universities where the bulk of the work needed to be done. At universities the issue was about in which departments tourism was slotted in. Tourism was trying to find its feet at mainstream universities. The issue was about obtaining skills versus academic training. Universities abroad had separate departments on tourism and recreation. In South African universities tourism was either slotted in with departments of geography or economics. Tourism at universities needed to exist on their own.

Prof Tevera responding to how to improve the ratio of jobs created per tourist he said that the issue was about how to improve South Africa’s competitiveness. He wished that he had a quick fix solution. He noted that a while back he had attended a conference in Costa Rica. The whole visit around the conference included lots of small activities which ultimately created employment for quite a few people. South Africa should perhaps look at how it could expand its opportunities.

Mr Khuzwayo agreed that the rail infrastructure issue was a challenge. Once revitalised it would impact upon the minibus taxi industry. Perhaps rail tourism could be looked at on its own. However custom made trains were expensive and a great deal of concessions were needed. It was also expensive to manage.
On the issue of improving the number of jobs created per tourist arriving in South Africa, the issue was about how tourism was conducted in South Africa. There was a need for diversification of products. At present in South Africa tourism was mainly driven by accommodation. Greater activities should be on offer. Greater investment in activities was needed. He noted that tourism was driven by numbers. Very few people and companies could conduct tourism projections. In tourism more soft skills was needed.
On the negative image projected of South Africa, he hoped that South African Tourism and Brand SA could try to improve the image.

Ms V Bam-Mugwanya (ANC) was impressed that the presenters were able to be so comprehensive in their presentations when the President had said so little regarding tourism. She agreed that rail transport was important and needed to be revitalised. The minibus taxi industry would not be in favour of revitalising rail as it would affect their taxi businesses. Rail transport was huge in many countries. Once rail transport was revitalised and in place it would boost tourism.  South Africa could not be compared to the rest of the world as it had not invested heavily in tourism as yet.

Ms Bam-Mugwanya said that the curriculum of tourism courses also in the past did not speak to the demands of the industry. Improvements were being made but a great deal of work still needed to be done. She pointed out that the hotel Tsogo Sun was training tourism graduates to start their own businesses. The training programme was still new. The fact of the matter unfortunately was that in South Africa tourism was not taken seriously. The National Department of Tourism was doing a sterling job nevertheless. The NDT found it difficult to synergise with other government departments as they often looked down on tourism. Funding was available to assist those at grassroots level. All that was needed was that funds needed to be allocated and thereafter to be monitored. She was glad that the issue of anomalies in statistics had been highlighted and would be addressed. South Africa indeed had a bad image abroad because of the incidences of violence that was taking place. Gender violence by males upon females was too common.

Prof Tevera said that the Committee’s feedback on the issue of tourism courses curriculum was useful. His department would be conducting a curriculum review. It would help with the department’s self examination. The idea was after all to make people employable.

Mr Khuzwayo said that the Tsogo Sun ran a “Book a guest house” programme. He felt it to be a good model of transformation in order to implement the black economic empowerment scorecard. Tsogo Sun could also be invited to address the Committee on how the programme worked.

Ms R Lesoma (ANC) spoke on the issue of infrastructure development and noted that the budgets were there. The NDT just needed its sister departments to speedup processes. Some of the recommendations made by the presenters made sense and needed members to apply their minds. Co-operation from other government departments needed to be lobbied by the Committee as well as getting assistance from the private sector. She felt that academia could also assist with coming up with more relevant curricular for tourism courses.

The Chairperson asked Prof Tevera and Mr Boekstein whether they had seen the Tourism Bill and made a submission on it.

Both Prof Tevera and Mr Boekstein responded that they had not seen the Bill.

Members were surprised by the reaction of both gentlemen.

The Chairperson also informed them about the Committee’s upcoming Tourism Summit 2013. He further highlighted areas which he felt academia could contribute towards. Some of the areas mentioned were innovation in tourism, best practises abroad, how to improve competitiveness, heritage destinations and road building programmes.
He pointed out that the Mexican Department of Tourism worked closely with 600 universities.

The meeting was adjourned.