National Department of Tourism & SA Tourism on their 2013/14 Annual Reports

Tourism

24 October 2014
Chairperson: Ms B Ngcobo (ANC)
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Meeting Summary

The National Department of Tourism briefed the Committee on its Annual Report 2013/14.
Minister Derek Hanekom pointed out that SA’s international tourist figures had increased by 4.7% and almost reached the 10 million mark in 2013 despite the slow economic recovery. The NDT was the custodian of the National Tourism Sector Strategy (NTSS). The aim was to promote inclusive tourism growth. SA Tourism was the NDT’s destination marketing mechanism. For the financial period under review SA Tourism had received R866m from the NDT and R131m from Tourism Marketing SA (TOMSA).

Both the NDT and SA Tourism had received unqualified audits for 2013/14. SA Tourism had received 13 unqualified audits in a row. The NDT had received an unqualified audit report for the past three years. For the 2013/14 period under review the Auditor General of SA had identified issues on Information Technology and control systems, predetermined objectives and the dependency of the NDT on some of its stakeholders. The NDT had utilised 99.5% of its allocated resources, and had abided by its payment of suppliers within 30 days.

Members were provided with a very comprehensive breakdown of the performance of the NDT in terms of its Programmes of Administration, Policy and Knowledge Services, International Tourism and Domestic Tourism. A breakdown of each Programme was given in terms of its strategic objectives, key performance indicators set in relation to the strategic objectives, the targets that were set in relation to key performance indicators and lastly the actual figures achieved which had to be compared to targets that had been set. 

A concern was raised about a possible discrepancy in domestic tourism figures as captured in the Annual Reports of the NDT and the SAT. The question was asked as to whether a database of resorts in SA had been compiled as called for by the National Tourism Sector Strategy. The issue of the affordability of World Heritage Sites to locals was a concern. Members felt that details of the work done on e-visas by the NDT should be made available to the Committee. According to the transformation figures of the NDT it appeared that the NDT was well transformed. Where to now?

It was felt that an impact assessment should be made in relation to the meeting of targets, and the implications of meeting or not meeting targets.  The suggestion was made that future annual reports should contain impact assessments of the type mentioned. While it was acknowledged that the EPWP was intended to be a job creator, concerns were raised that workers had been found loitering at Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP) projects, were there no systems in place to monitor employees?

South African Tourism (SAT) briefed the Committee on its Annual Report 2013/14. SAT was essentially focused on the international marketing of SA as a tourist destination. Domestic tourism, brand awareness, key quality assurance beyond that of accommodation and business events growth were important pillars to SAT. A strategic objective was to increase foreign visitor arrivals coming to SA. The planned target for 2013/14 was set at 13 021 979 the actual achievement was 14 860 216. It was a positive deviation of 14.12%. However on the strategic objective of increasing domestic tourism in SA, the target number of domestic travellers for 2013/14 was set at 15 million. The actual figure for 2013/14 was 12 million a negative deviation of -20%, given that actual figures for 2012/13 had been 12.5m. Although domestic targets were not achieved, the new domestic campaign launched in August 2013 started to show increased performance in spend and number of trips in the Quarter 4 of 2013/14.

The Members asked if there was a benchmark to assess the impact of a possible increase in budget as SAT had mentioned the challenge of a limited budget. Was there a way to determine the economic impact of hosting attractive conferences in the country? Was there a possibility to host the conferences to other partly-rural provinces so as to avoid concentration to the big cities? One Member asked whether the National Geographic broadcasts utilised African indigenous languages, so as to accommodate a large audience and also expressed concern that the use of digital marketing excluded old people who still relied on the old technology. Members suggested that SAT needed to monitor and measure the impact of Sho’t Left campaign on an on-going basis and also where possible, shift the resources and focus on the poorly performing provinces, in terms of tourist visits. The further advised the Department and SAT to assist the municipalities with capacity to be able to attract the market in rural areas and townships. 

Meeting report

National Department of Tourism (NDT)
The National Department of Tourism briefed the Committee on its Annual Report 2013/14. The delegation comprised of Minister Derek Hanekom; Deputy Minister Tokozile Xasa;  Director General Mr L Makhubela, Mr Dirk van Schalkwyk Chief Financial Officer (COO); Mr Bernie Meyer Deputy Director General: Policy Management; Ms Morongoe Ramphele Deputy Director General: Domestic Tourism; Ms Aneme Malan Deputy Director General: International Tourism; Mr Ralph Ackerman, Chief Financial Officer; Ms Nomzamo Bhengu Chief Director: Governance Support; Mr Trevor Bloem, Chief Director: Communication; and Ms Petra Van Niekerk Parliamentary Liaison Officer amongst others.

Minister Hanekom briefed the Committee.
South Africa’s international tourist figures had increased by 4.7% and had almost reached the 10 million mark in 2013 despite slow economic recovery. The NDT was the custodian of the National Tourism Sector Strategy (NTSS), the aim of which was to promote inclusive tourism growth. SA Tourism was the NDT’s destination marketing mechanism.

For the financial period under review SA Tourism had received R866 million from the NDT and R131 million from Tourism Marketing SA (TOMSA). Both the NDT and SA Tourism had received unqualified audits for 2013/14. SA Tourism had received 13 unqualified audits in a row. The tourism sector was a socially and environmentally viable sector. By 2020 the intention was to have a sector that was open to have more representative ownership coming into the sector. The tourism sector needed to be more transformed. Employment needed to increase in the sector over the next five years with a more skilled workforce. There were three vehicles with which to achieve what was intended for the sector:

- Marketing, which meant that SA Tourism had to expand their activities.

- Growth of the EPWP projects. More skills training should be undertaken and more rural jobs created. Rural areas were a huge problem, and World Heritage Sites also needed greater attention.

- Tourism Enterprise Programme (TEP), which was a priority of the NDT.

Support to Small Medium and Micro Enterprises (SMMEs) had to continue. Opportunities also had to be created for new entrants into the sector. Strategic partnerships also needed to be strengthened. There was furthermore a need to strengthen communication and outreach

Challenges that affected efforts were the recent Ebola outbreak in parts of Africa that had unfairly impacted upon tourism in SA; and negative perceptions had to be corrected. The NDT was also working on the issue of the Department of Home Affairs’ immigration regulations.
 
Mr Makhubela stated that the NDT showed a consistent trend of performance over the past 4 years. The NDT had received an unqualified audit report for the past three years. For 2012/13 the NDT should have received a clean audit but for two issues. There was an issue pertaining to inventory of information and an issue around delays in providing information on financial reports. For the 2013/14 period under review the Auditor General of SA had identified issues on Information Technology and control systems, predetermined objectives and the dependency of the NDT on some of its stakeholders.

Mr Makhubela wished to clear up some issues which the Financial Fiscal Commission (FFC) had raised in its briefing to the Committee not too long ago. The FFC had noted that tourism made a contribution of 12% to employment creation in SA. The FFC had mentioned that the figure had been obtained from research that had been done by the World Tourism Council. The NDT had checked on the figure using StatsSA and the World Tourism Council figure was 10%.  The FFC had also noted that accommodation had been affected by metalworker’s strikes. It had also stated that it had engaged in a technical meeting with the NDT. He had checked with NDT management and no such meeting had happened. The FFC had also stated that the NDT was the Executive Authority, which was not so, the Minister was the Executive authority.

The NDT had utilised 99.5% of its allocated resources. It had abided by its payment of suppliers within 30 days. Mr Makhubela wished to clear up confusion around which the International Tourism Programme was doing compared to what SA Tourism was doing. SA Tourism’s focus was on marketing SA. The responsibility of the International Tourism Programme was on policy formulation. SA Tourism had no capacity to develop policy. The International Tourism Programme did not get involved in marketing. He said that the NDT needed to keep up with trends around the world. It was doing detailed research on e-visas.

Ms Bhengu proceeded with the briefing on the actual presentation. The Auditor General of SA had given the NDT an unqualified audit with no emphasis on matter. In lay mans terms it was a clean audit. There were some issues pertaining to predetermined objectives. The achievement of targets was recorded incorrectly in the annual performance report in relation to the Programme: Domestic Tourism Management (misstatements). Misstatements in Annual Report (Domestic Tourism Management) were corrected. 

Mr Ackerman spoke to the financials of the NDT. The NDT had spent 99.5% of its appropriation. Figures on appropriations and expenditures across NDT’s Programmes were provided to the Committee. He noted that R7.9m had been returned to National Treasury.
 
Mr van Schalkwyk provided specifics on the Administration Programme. On the strategic objective of a capable and skilled workforce, the key performance indicator was to maintain the maximum vacancy rate of 8%. The target was set at 8%. The actual performance was a vacancy rate of 8.6%, which was a deviation of 0.6% from the planned target. On the key performance indicator of percentage representation of designated groups, the target for black minimum representation in the NDT was set at 89%, the actual performance was 93.9%.

Mr Meyer continued with the Policy and Knowledge Services Programme. On the strategic objective of monitoring and evaluation of tourism sector performance, strategies and policies a key performance indicator set was the number of state tourism reports developed. The target was to have a 2012 State of Tourism Report (STR), the 2012 State of Tourism Report (STR) was finalised. Another key performance indicator was to have a NTSS implementation report developed annually. The target was to have a 2012/13 NTSS Report, and such report was finalised
 
Ms Malan elaborated on the International Tourism Management Programme. On the strategic objective to provide international tourism market analysis to inform strategic interventions, a key performance indicator used was to support SA missions to institutionalise tourism. The target set was to support all 126 missions, and all 126 missions had been supported on a business planning model for institutionalising tourism. A further key performance indicator was to develop a number of policy positions to enhance tourism competitiveness. A target was to set a policy position on e-visas and actual performance was that a e-visa policy position had been developed.
 
Ms Ramphele presented on the Domestic Tourism Management Programme. On the strategic objective to implement tourism growth and development strategies in order to increase tourism’s contribution to inclusive economic growth, a key performance indicator set was to have a number of national tourism programmes activated from the approved Domestic Tourism Growth Strategy’s action plan. A target was set to have a pilot budget holiday resort concept, and a draft pilot budget holiday resort concept was developed. A deviation from the planned target was that consultation with other stakeholders on the concept was still outstanding.
 
Mr van Schalkwyk concluded with a summary of workforce representative figures. 

Discussion
Mr J Vos (DA) noted discrepancies between the Annual Reports of the NDT and SAT. There was big emphasis by the NDT to increase domestic tourism. The SAT planned target to increase domestic tourism figures was set at15m million for 2013/14; the actual figure was 12 million. However the actual figure for 2012/13 was 12.5 million, which meant there was a drop in actual figures by 0.5m. He asked the NDT to explain given the importance of tourism as a key driver for the economy. The NDT needed to intensify its efforts on domestic tourism. The NDT stated that SAT figures on domestic tourism had increased to 12 million. The numbers did not seem to correlate. Figures on what was targeted and what was achieved needed to be unpacked. He further noted that the NDT had planned to create 5173 full time jobs; the actual amount of jobs created was 2797. There was a huge deviation of 2076 jobs. He referred to the Budget Holiday Resort Report, and said that the National Tourism Sector Strategy (NTSS) had called for a database of resorts in SA to be drawn up. The problem was that municipalities could not maintain resorts. An opportunity existed in that the resorts could attract visitors and could uplift the towns in which they were situated. It was of utmost importance to get the resorts up and going. The Private sector should also be brought onboard.
Mr Vos noted that there was an issue of affordability attached to World Heritage Sites. The entrance fees were expensive and could not be afforded by the average South African. There should be a desire to make the sites more affordable. Other departments should also be brought onboard.
Mr Vos referred a study was taking place on the issue of e-visas, the outcome of which was to be communicated to the Department of Home Affairs, and a policy position was also to be developed. He asked that details on the work done on e-visas be made available to the Committee. He urged everyone to support the introduction of e-visas.

Mr Makhubela responded that there were no contradictions with the figures. It would be explained. The issue of resorts in provinces and in municipal areas was being addressed. Part of the conditions was the sustainability issue; there was a model on sustainability. The issue was about getting someone to manage the resorts.
 
Ms Bhengu referred to page 60 of the NDT Annual Report and to page 57 of the SAT Annual Report and said that there was no discrepancy in figures; the figures were the same. The issue was around drafting and how the figures had been captured in the NDT Annual Report.

Mr G Krumbock (DA) commented that looking at the human resource figures for the NDT it seemed as though the NDT was well transformed. Transformation within the NDT had succeeded. Where to now,  what was the way forward for the NDT on transformation given that it was transformed?
He noted that the Annual Report spoke to targets that had been set for the Medium Term Expenditure Framework (/MTEF) and what had been actually achieved. What the Annual Report did not speak to was what it all meant. What was the impact of reaching targets, and how did it affect the industry? There should be a fourth column which spoke about extra tourists and extra jobs that had been created, there needed to be something to measure the target against. Alternatively a qualitative or quantitative analysis should be done. The impact of targets needed to be measured; there should be something to measure the targets against. What were the implications for the short, medium or long term? Only then would sense be made of targets. It would shed light on whether there should be concerns if targets were not met. He hoped that for the next financial year Annual Report a fourth column would be added.

Mr van Schalkwyk said that appointments in the NDT were done in terms of its Human Resource Management Plan and Strategy. The Department of Public Service and Administration (DPSA) had stated that in making appointments the NDT had to take requirements for the post and representativity into consideration.

Ms P Adams (ANC) asked what kind of training had been offered to municipalities in terms of Programme 2, whether there was a tool to measure the impact of the training, and whether it was as once off training or would there be follow up training?
She referred to page 37 of the presentation, which spoke about 126 missions being supported for institutionalising tourism. Of concern was that the rest of the world saw the Ebola outbreak as affecting the whole of the continent and should be informed that the Ebola outbreak was far from SA She congratulated the efforts of the NDT on the issue of e-visas. The Committee would appreciate further information.
On the number of rural enterprises supported per year, of the 969 target that had been set why had only 727 been funded by the NDT. What criterion was used to decide which to fund?

Mr Makhubela said in terms of the NDT’s relationship with other spheres of government, provinces and local government brought up the fact that tourism was a concurrent function. The NDT decided to follow a more soft approach with them and invited provinces and local governments to their planning sessions, and the NDT was invited to theirs.

Training at local government took place at both political and technical level. Municipal managers and Members of Executive Committees (MECs) were trained. Local government elections was coming up in 2016 and the NDT planned to offer training in 2015 as well. 

Ms Ramphele, on the 727 enterprises that had been supported, said there was a Tourism Enterprise Programme (TEP) in place. Contributions should have been on a 50%-50% split. However the TEP only contributed towards 25%. The 727 enterprises supported was based on the 75% contribution by the NDT. The TEP charged a fee of R600. In rural areas the fee could not be afforded.

Mr Makhubela explained that the partnership with the TEP was from the days of the Business Trust., and the TEP had been funded by the Business Trust. The TEP however had their own sources of funding. He noted that the NDT could only report on what the NDT had funded and not on what the TEP had funded.

Mr Meyer referred to local government training and noted that 100 delegates had been trained. It had been a pilot project and would be continuing. Training had covered many issues, which included the role of local government in tourism and tourism legislation.

Ms L Makhubele-Mashele (ANC) spoke to Programme 4, which dealt with domestic tourism, and asked why targets had to be lowered. On EPWP projects mention was made that employees were found to be loitering, which was a huge concern, it should not be happening and people needed to take their jobs seriously. There should be systems in place and monitoring should also be done. She asked for a proper explanation.  Staying with the Domestic Tourism Programme the number of national tourism programmes activated was 15; the target had been set at 18. She asked for an explanation on the deviation. She asked for an explanation on the difference between virement and a shifting of funds. In the Annual Report virement in the amount of R4.5m had taken place. However a total of R10m had been shifted to another Programme.

Mr Makhubela explained that on there were targets that were set by the NDT on the EPWP. A certain percentage of funding had to be spent to employ people. Machinery could not be used as the process called for manual labour. Machinery could be used in construction if it was properly substantiated with National Treasury. Machinery was used in construction to ensure that projects were completed in time. The NDT and SA Tourism worked towards contributing to job creation and to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of SA. Training of persons was done to create jobs and to contribute towards SA’s GDP.

Ms Ramphele explained that owners of infrastructure projects had complained about loitering. Too many workers were employed, there was therefore no productive employment and loitering was the consequence.
 
Mr Ackerman explained that on the R10m there had been approval from National Treasury. It was a virement. There was no misrepresentation. Virements in total amounted to R14m. 

Ms E Masehela (ANC) asked why there was a need to reduce the number of targeted EPWP projects. She believed that the EPWP was an opportunity to create many jobs. What was not being done correctly? She asked why the NDT was not able to meet its 5% target on disability. Actual target achieved sat at 4.5%. She asked whether the problem was that targets were not realistic. She felt that the NDT was nevertheless doing well as the national target on disability was 2%.  She was concerned that funds had been returned to National Treasury. How could the NDT return funds? The NDT had set a target of training 100 Further Education and Training (FET) hospitality graduates in Food Safety, how many had been trained?

Ms Ramphele confirmed that 100 FET hospitality graduates had been trained and placed. 

Mr Makhubela said that the NDT’s advertisements for posts were found to be adverse in not taking disabled persons into consideration. It was decided that change was needed. He had also recommended that the NDT set its target on disability at 5%, which his colleagues had warned was too ambitious. Yes the NDT had fallen short of its target but it was not due to bad planning.

Ms S Xego-Sovita (ANC) asked what it meant if the third phase of the EPWP was launched. The Deputy Minister had promised that jobs would be created. The NDT needed to learn from previous experiences. If targets were dependant on third parties then careful planning needed to be done. She also queried why funds had been returned to National Treasury. Did the NDT not apply for a rollover of funds? The NDT needed to correct and strategise around what had been raised by the Auditor General in order to maintain a good audit record.

Mr Ackerman stated that there had been zero requests for a rollover of funds. The NDT did not have any capital projects. Funds were consequently returned to National Treasury. 

The Chairperson remarked that it seemed as if the problem was around implementation. There had to have been issues around planning or else there would not have been so many deviations. What was the problem? If people were given jobs why was the work not done? Perhaps the NDT needed to contract people to drive work. Was the issue around a lack of capacity of the people employed?

Mr Vos reiterated that he had three specific issues that he wished to take back from the meeting. The first was around the issue of a database for holiday resorts as called for by the NTSS. The second was around the issue of e-visas, the policy of which needed to be presented to the Committee. The Director General had referred to a study that was being done on e-visas and it was hoped the outcome would be presented to the Committee. The third issue was around domestic tourism figures and the discrepancy around it.  

Mr Makhubela responded that the NDT had in its strategic plan decided to have an e-visa approach. SA needed to catch up with the rest of the world. The NDT did have a policy on it and they were working with the Department of Home Affairs. It was only a working document at this stage. SA Tourism completed the database on resorts some time ago. On domestic visitor arrivals figures the planned figure was 15 million and actual achievement was 12 million. If there were a decline in figures reflected in the Annual Report of SA Tourism it was best that they explain. 

The Chairperson asked whether the NDT felt that a review on it needed to be done on performance since it became a standalone department in 2009.  Which areas should it channel its energies to?         

Minister Hanekom said that the NDT was under constant review by the Committee and himself. He noted that some entities of government received external reviews. In 2015 there would be an external review of SA Tourism.
 
Mr Krumbock said that an impact assessment of projects needed should be done. He reiterated that in future Annual Reports should reflect impact assessments.

The Chairperson agreed, the Committee would find the information useful.
 
Minister Hanekom said that it was important to deal with questions asked systematically or else questions could be missed. There were so many key performance indicators and at times there were deviations. One almost needed an entire meeting session to cover all key performance indicators.
He explained that there was a format to be used for annual reports. The NDT had stuck to the format. In some instances the deviation from targets could be positive. On EPWP projects he found it unfortunate that people were found to be loitering. An analysis of EPWP projects was needed. Questions needed to be asked as to what worked or not. Successes of EPWP depended upon business cases. He was giving the issue his dedicated attention. It must be accepted that there would be failures but the EPWP had to be given impetus. The NDT focused on the Eight World Heritage sites. The NDT liased with other departments as well. He noted that, as the NDT was moving towards its 5-year Strategic Plan there were five areas to consider:

-EPWP- the question should be how the NDT and SA Tourism efforts had contributed towards economic growth and job creation
-Small Medium and Micro Enterprise (SMME) support- The kind of support given to SMMEs and how many were supported.
-Skills Development and Training- Greater emphasis on it was needed in the tourism sector. It was also provided on EPWP projects.
-Quality assurance- It could be applicable to tour guides or even the Tourism Guiding Council of SA. Good quality assurance was needed.
-Support to municipalities- Collaboration with other spheres of government and departments was important. The NDT needed to support municipalities to revitalise resorts. These resorts were the key responsibility of municipalities and tourism should be built into the Integrated Development Plans (IDPs) of municipalities.

On the issue of impact assessments, Minister Hanekom pointed out that at times it was easy whilst other times it was difficult. For example impact of the EPWP could be the creation of X amount of jobs and the greater impact would be poverty alleviation and job creation. It was a difficult exercise with each and every component.

South African Tourism (SAT)
South African Tourism briefed the Committee on its Annual Report 2013/14. The delegation comprised of Mr Thulani Nzima Chief Executive Officer; Mr Graham Wood Chairman of the SA Tourism Board; Mr Tom Bruwer Chief Financial Officer; and Ms Amanda Kotze-Nhlapo Executive Manager: SA National Conventions Bureau, amongst others.
 
Mr Wood provided some brief background. SAT was made up mostly of private sector individuals. The Board tried to ensure that the Executive of SAT played a stewardship role. SAT was proud of the fact that its accountability of state resources was good. SAT was however accountable to the NDT. SAT was essentially focused on the international marketing of SA as a tourist destination. Domestic tourism, brand awareness, key quality assurance beyond that of accommodation and business events growth were important pillars to SAT.
 
Mr Nzima undertook the briefing.  He touched on the vision, mission and mandate of SAT. On its corporate governance side SAT had received its 13th unqualified audit report in 2013/14. On 2013/14 audited performance information a strategic objective was to increase foreign visitor arrivals coming to South Africa. The performance indicator used was the number of foreign visitor arrivals. The planned target for 2013/14 was set at 13 021 979 the actual achievement was 14 860 216. It was a positive deviation of 14.12%. However on the strategic objective of increasing domestic tourism in South Africa, with the performance indicator being the number of domestic travellers, a target for 2013/14 was set at 15 million. The actual figure for 2013/14 was 12 million, a negative deviation of -20%. The drop in domestic tourism figures was concerning given that actual figures for 2012/13 had been 12.5 million.

Some external factors that impacted of SAT’s work were exchange currency weaknesses and unemployment dampening domestic tourism.  Figures on global tourism performance were also provided to the Committee. SAT received R866.9 million from the NDT and a further R131.3 million from TOMSA for 2013/14. Key global and Africa initiatives were touched on.

On the domestic side a key initiative was the integrated new “Sho’t Left” campaign, which was launched in August 2013 to encourage South Africans to take short breaks. The South African National Conventions Bureau (SANCB) focussed its efforts on attracting events in economic sectors that had been identified by government as accelerating macro-economic benefits for the country. The Tourism Grading Council of SA (TGCSA) undertook the grading of establishments be it on a voluntary basis. A challenge was the perceived lack of credibility of the grading process and of grading criteria. Consequently the SAT through the TGCSA developed a strategy to review the business model of the TGCSA with a view to increase the base of graded establishments as well as renewals.
 
Although domestic targets were not achieved, the new domestic campaign launched in August 2013 started to show increased performance in spend and number of trips in Quarter 4 of 2013/14.  

Discussion
Mr Krumbock was impressed by the presentation made and the achievements mentioned despite limited budget. He asked if there was a benchmark to assess the impact of a possible increase in budget.

Mr Hanekom responded that the Department still needed to do a proper research in order to determine the benchmark to assess the impact of a possible increase in budget. The Department needed to come back and brief the Committee more on domestic tourism as the large portion of the presentation focused on international tourism.

Ms Makhubele-Mashele asked if there was a way to determine the economic impact of hosting attractive conferences in the country. Was there a possibility to host the conferences to other partly-rural provinces so as to avoid concentration in the big cities?
           
Mr Nzima responded that SAT was working very close with municipalities and there was a focus on rural tourism and the Eastern Cape and Kwa-Zulu Natal were active in promoting tourism in their respective region.

Ms Kotze-Nhlapo responded that indeed most of the conferences were largely concentrated in major cities and this was especially the case for business conferences as this was where big businesses were concentrated. It was encouraging that 40% of the tourists in the country preferred to stay in rural areas not in the cities. 

Ms Adams asked if there was a strategy in place for SAT to improve geographic trend as this was indicated in one of the six strategic objectives. She asked whether National Geographic used African indigenous languages, so as to accommodate a large audience. She expressed concern that the use of digital marketing was mostly targeted at young people and excluded old people who still relied on the old technology.

Ms Adams further asked how the entity planned to align the culture of people in the country with Sho’t Left campaign. Lastly, she asked what the reason was for the low number of tourists from African countries.
           
Mr Nzima responded that the focus was to use different forms of communication to advertise so as to accommodate different variety of people. The improvement of geographic trend was largely dependent on the budget available. SAT considered the common language that was used by a particular country for the National Geographic broadcasts. The sad reality was that most of the African countries still used colonial languages.

Mr de Vos questioned whether SAT monitored and measured the impact of Sho’t Left campaign on an on-going basis. He suggested that SAT needed to shift the resources and focus on the poorly performing provinces, in terms of tourist visits and suggested that the municipalities need to be assisted with capacity.

Mr Nzima responded that there were poorly performing provinces in terms of number of tourist visited and there were discussions to shift the resources.

Mr A Whitfield (DA) said that the Local Government conference scheduled for 2015 was long overdue considering that the municipalities were still struggling to attract the relevant market. The TGCSA was critical important as tourists needed to be assured about the quality provided - not only in accommodation but also goods and services. What were the relationship between SAT and the major cities like Cape Town, Johannesburg and Durban? He suggested that the Department needs to consider the issue of affordability as this was a determining factor in the success of domestic tourism.

Mr Hanekom responded that it was important for the survival of the industry to maintain high quality standard in terms of accommodation but also on goods and services as alluded by the Member.The issue of affordability was critical important especial when considering that a large of number of South Africans were part of the working. The Department had a strong relationship with all the provinces but mainly focused on major cities for large events as this atracted tourists and essentially generated more revenue.

Ms Masehela wanted to get clarity on the overlap of programmes between in the Department and SAT so as to avoid the duplication of the work that was done by the Department and SAT regarding international tourism.

Mr Nzima responded that the Department and SAT had an engagement to ensure that they understood each other’s mandate so as to avoid the duplication of activities. He mentioned that the area that was still unclear was on research especially on developing products to respond to the needs of consumers.

The Chairperson stated that SAT should provide the Committee with feedback regarding the amount of money made by the Department in developed markets relative to emerging market. She asked the Department to make a presentation early next year regarding domestic tourism as this was an important topic considering the general decline of international tourists throughout the world. She thanked everyone present.

The meeting was adjourned.  
 

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