Domestic Tourism: South African Tourism briefing

Meeting report

South African Tourism (SA Tourism)
SA Tourism briefed the Committee on its Domestic Tourism Marketing Strategy. The delegation comprised of Mr Thulani Nzima Chief Executive Officer (CEO); Ms Stembiso Dlamini, Chief Operating Officer (COO); Ms Amanda Kotze-Nhlapo, Chief Convention Bureau Officer; Ms Debbie Damant: Country Manager: Southern Africa; Mr Mabeko Makola, Marketing and Communication Manager: Southern Africa; Mr Thekiso Rakolojane Manager: Marketing and Communication, Tourism Grading Council of SA; and Ms Ntokozo Langa, Manager: Office of the CEO. Ms Beulah Mosupye represented the National Department of Tourism (NDT). Chief Director: Domestic Tourism Northern Region, and Mr Myron Peters, Chief Director: Domestic Tourism Southern Region.

 
Mr Nzima said that the purpose of the briefing was to ensure that all questions pertaining to domestic tourism were dealt with. What was being presented was an executive summary of the Annual Performance Plan and Strategic Plan of SA Tourism. The Committee had also written a letter to SA Tourism requesting certain issues to be clarified. The mandate of SA Tourism would be re-emphasised and it would be referenced against the National Tourism Sector Strategy (NTSS). The NTSS did however not direct who did what. The Domestic Tourism Marketing Strategy briefing would cover how ring-fenced funds were used and how the Strategy was implemented. It would also give an indication of what had been done thus far. The Domestic Tourism Marketing Strategy had a baseline plan and had additional ring-fenced funds. The ring-fenced funds amounted to R100m in the first year, R105m in the second year and R107m in its third year. The Domestic Tourism Marketing Strategy was in place; SA Tourism just did not have the funds to implement it. The Strategy had come about through inputs from stakeholders. Stakeholders included the NDT, Ministry, SA Tourism Board, provincial tourism authorities, city tourism agencies and the Tourism Business Council of SA. The briefing covered what SA Tourism had done for 2015/16. The bulk of SA Tourism’s work was to enhance what needed to be done in 2016/17 and outer years.

Ms Dlamini continued with the actual briefing. She did not wish to repeat what Mr Nzima had already covered. Key domestic tourism challenges included developing the economic, socio-political case for domestic tourism, which would result in building a culture of travel amongst all South Africans and encouraging more frequent travel over a broad geographic spread throughout all seasons. Some barriers to domestic travel were low disposable income of most South Africans, the perception that travel was not affordable, lack of a culture of travel due in part to not understanding the value and benefits of travel and the general belief in the trade, in provinces and in cities that international tourism was more important than domestic tourism. SA Tourism had done a domestic survey that identified the top five reasons for not travelling domestically over the past three years ie could not afford to travel, no reason to take a trip, time constraints, unemployed/no income and disliked travelling. Economic constraints remained the biggest barrier to domestic travel. Approximately 48% of the adult population of SA could not afford to travel and were unemployed or had no income. Visiting Friends and Relatives (VFR) remained the major reason for domestic trips and the number of domestic trips increased in 2014 compared to 2013. The number of holiday and business trips taken in 2014 decreased compared to 2013 and were even lower than 2012 levels.

The Committee was given insight on how the Domestic Tourism Marketing Strategy would be linked up with the National Tourism Sector Strategy (NTSS). SA Tourism aimed to entrench a tourism culture amongst all South Africans, to increase the number of domestic travellers, to grow the number of domestic trips, to increase the number of holiday trips, to improve the domestic tourism revenue contribution and to improve seasonality and geographic spread of tourism. SA Tourism identified five of the most attractive segments of travellers for activation. These were spontaneous budget explorers, new horizon families, high life enthusiasts, seasoned leisure seekers and well to do Mzansi families.

The Committee was provided with detail on the budget of the Domestic Tourism Marketing Strategy, and figures on the Medium Term Expenditure Framework Budget allocations, which comprised of domestic tourism’s budget allocations and the ring-fenced funds. To ensure that the additional funding would be spent to support firstly, marketing activities aimed at creating awareness and culture of travel and secondly, marketing activities that would drive conversion in the short term. The breakdown on the respective marketing activities for each financial year was 2015/16 – 70%:30%; 2016/17 – 60%:40%; 2017/18 – 50%:50%.

The Committee was provided with a comprehensive breakdown of the marketing strategies as per identified strategic objectives and an indication of how implementation was to take place.
 
Strategic Objective 1 was to grow the number of domestic travellers – Television shows like Ultimate Braai Master, Muhvango and Getaway Travel Show were some of the initiatives undertaken.

Strategic Objective 2 was to entrench a tourism culture amongst South Africans. Some of the initiatives included Women’s Day Activation, DJ tours, spelling bee competitions and print partnerships.
 
Strategic Objective 3 was to increase tourism revenue contribution to the economy. The intention was to drive conversion with all trade partners showing the profitability of selling domestic travel ie converting business travellers to leisure. Initiatives included a partnership with Intercape the inter-city bus service and an expo with Stokvel associations.
 
Strategic Objective 4 was to enhance efforts aimed at addressing seasonality and equitable geographical spread. Initiatives included a Small Medium Micro Enterprise (SMME) Domestic Workshop on the importance of domestic tourism and on how products should be packaged. The Sho’t Left Domestic Marketing Campaign was unpacked for members. The campaign line had evolved from a campaign of “Nothing More Fun Than a Sho’t Left” in 2013 to a campaign of “A Million New Experiences Are a Sho’t Left Away” at present to embrace all South Africans. The difference between the campaigns was that the old campaign focused on the five brand segments of persons who were already travelling. The new campaign was aimed at all South Africans. This evolution was informed by the need to increase frequency of travel within the priority segments and entrenching a culture of travel amongst South Africans. The idea was that there was always a first time to experience something new and that every weekend provided an opportunity to do something that they had never done before.

Ms Kotze- Nhlapo noted the challenge of geographical spread and said that the issue was how to convert the business delegate traveller to a leisure traveller. For example when a nursing association held a conference during the week there were between 3000-5000 delegates in a particular city. The question was how to convince these delegates to stay for the weekend for leisure purposes. Delegates could bring their families along to enjoy some leisure time.

Mr Nzima concluded that the briefing was quite comprehensive and that he hoped it had clarified the roles of SA Tourism and the NDT on domestic tourism. He noted that the work was intensive and ongoing. It was a learning curve for SA Tourism as well. Culture, heritage and landmarks were important to boost domestic tourism. It was however not the mandate of SA Tourism to improve places like Robben Island etc. Such was the work of other role players. The mandate of SA Tourism was marketing.

Discussion
The Chairperson asked what SA Tourism did to grow local events in municipalities. She pointed out that the NDT was training people at municipalities.

Mr R Cebekhulu (IFP) was pleased that SA Tourism’s focus had included rural schools as well. 

Mr Nzima said more schools were focused on to increase exposure. SA Tourism did host heritage and culture days. SA Tourism on more than two occasions had taken school children to cultural places.

Ms E Masehela (ANC) said that the briefing had been very elaborate. It seemed there were efforts to craft a new definition of tourism in keeping with a new way of doing things. Were there any ideas on a new definition? She asked how SA Tourism tried to encourage people to travel. Establishments needed to be encouraged to offer specials. Affordability was one of the major obstacles.

Mr Nzima said that an expansion of the definition of tourism was needed. As things stood SA Tourism could not propose a new definition.

Ms Dlamini referred to the Mangaung African Cultural Festival (MACUFE) in Bloemfontein where 200 000 people attended. There were however only 10 000 beds in Bloemfontein at that time. Gaps needed to be closed.

Mr J Vos (DA) agreed that the briefing was very comprehensive. He noted that international tourism figures were declining and it was obvious that the decline was due to the visa regulations that had been introduced. Domestic tourism figures were also low. Alarm bells should be going off especially since it was Tourism Month at present. The decline in international and domestic tourist figures was of great concern especially since SA had good tourist products. Heavy marketing was needed. The briefing had noted that South Africans mainly travelled to visit family and friends. SA Tourism consequently wished to intensify efforts focusing on that market. He disagreed with the approach since people themselves made the choice to visit family and friends. It was market driven. SA Tourism should rather focus on other segments. SA Tourism could focus on business tourism, heritage tourism, leisure tourism and adventure tourism. If public funds were going to be spent it should be on the aforementioned categories of tourism and others.  The statistics that StatsSA provided on day trips and overnight trips had shown a decline in figures. Did the statistics of SA Tourism speak to the statistics of Stats SA or did SA Tourism do its own research and have its own figures? Concerns had been raised about the accuracy of StatsSA figures. There had been a change in methodology of its statistics. He asked for clarity over the issue. If SA Tourism was doing research he felt that there might be duplication given that the NDT had its Policy and Knowledge Research Branch. Duplication had to be prevented at all cost, as public funds should not be wasted. The Western Cape Province had a strategy on business and conferencing. One day of leisure was built into business trip packages. On business trips accommodation and food costs were already covered.  He felt that SA Tourism’s main work should be on collaboration and marketing. The NDT should be tasked with product development. What were the linkages between the NDT and SA Tourism? Tourism needed to be made affordable. It was therefore important for government and the private sector to work together. He suggested that perhaps discounted tariffs could be charged for South African citizens. He noted that the Sho’t Left Campaign had to speak to all segment markets. SA Tourism had given a very academic explanation but he felt that efforts thus far had not been very successful. The cities of Cape Town and Johannesburg had very good campaigns to market themselves. What was it with the Sho’t Left Campaign that would speak to South Africans?

Ms Kotze-Nhlapo spoke to the distinction between business, cultural and lifestyle events. On the geographical spread for business events she said that pre and post tours were introduced. On lifestyle events it was a marketing tool. SA Tourism had a board member from the Arts Council. Events were being used to market domestic tourism.

Mr Nzima said that SA Tourism had a deliberate strategy that would support events around provinces. SA Tourism did have a special deals page. Discounted prices and affordable deals were already covered in the Sho’t Left Campaign and in its international campaigns. He stressed that SA Tourism was not only marketing or concentrating on the Visitation of Friends and Relatives (VFR) by South Africans. The intention was to cover whatever opportunities the VFR offered SA Tourism. SA Tourism did not influence business travel. When persons travelled for religious or medical reasons it was not influenced by the work of SA Tourism. The idea was to convert travelling for the VFR to travelling for holiday purposes. Business travel was used as a platform to convert travel for leisure purposes. Statistics provided in the briefing were those of SA Tourism and not from StatsSA. StatsSA had certified SA Tourism’s methodology. SA Tourism did not have sufficient capacity to continue to compile the statistics. Talks with StatsSA were taking place for them to take over the function. At present StatsSA was not yet ready but the intention was for them to take over in two years time. Internal arrival figures were obtained from StatsSA. StatsSA in turn obtained the figures from the Department of Home Affairs.   SA Tourism and StatsSA had both obtained a clean audit. The research activities of the NDT and SA Tourism differed. There was no duplication. SA Tourism’s research was considered insight research that looked at the behaviour of the consumer. The research of the NDT was broader and covered political, economic and legislative types of research. On linkages between the NDT and SA Tourism, the NDT had to engage on policy matters and to remove barriers. SA Tourism on the other hand had a lobbyist role. Its mandate was to market SA.

Ms Dlamini confirmed that StatsSA was not ready to take over the SA Tourism survey. SA Tourism was sometimes concerned about the samples it used. SA Tourism should market things that it had planned. SA Tourism was entering its planning phase for the next two years.

Ms Makhubele-Mashele said that she would like to see positive outcomes of strategies on domestic tourism given that funds had been ring-fenced for it. She asked how SA Tourism intended to measure the impact of the work it had done. She was pleased that Stokvels had been targeted by SA Tourism to drive domestic tourism but felt that its efforts could be intensified to include a greater number of stokvels. She belonged to stokvels and said sometimes payout money was used on the wrong things. The private sector needed to be taken on board. Business travellers needed to be incentivised. Concepts should be thought out to targets business travellers and to convince them to look at tourism activities that could complement business trips. She asked for clarity on the Sho’t Left Campaign. Why were there two campaigns or slogans? Which one was currently used?

Mr Nzima said the Sho’t Left Campaign was refreshed with a new slogan. First experiences were important and people held on to those experiences. It was not only about messaging but also about conversion.  On stokvels the briefing spoke to what had been reached on specific campaigns. SA Tourism could intensify efforts and do much better.

Ms S Xego-Sovita (ANC) did not feel that affordability was the only barrier to South Africans travelling around SA. The mindsets of South Africans needed to be changed. She admitted that in as much as she travelled to Cape Town on a weekly basis she had not visited Robben Island. She observed that each of the provinces had different marketing strategies. SA Tourism could perhaps have another strategy to focus on each of the provinces. She also felt that the key to the success of SA Tourism’s efforts was partnerships with various stakeholders. One such stakeholder could be the SA Heritage Resources Agency (SAHRA). SA Tourism should not only target the black middle class but should target black people in general. The Committee was not only there to police SA Tourism but also to give advice; SA Tourism should take heed of the advice given. She suggested that SA Tourism use ambassadors from different age groups to target their respective age groups. She was pleased that SA Tourism was working with low cost airlines like Mango. Travel packages should be affordable. Other airlines should also be brought on board. She also suggested that when SA Tourism presented quarterly reports to the Committee that Members be informed as to what had worked and what had not worked. SA Tourism should consider working with less expensive partnerships so that more people could be reached.

Mr Nzima said that Robben Island would be a new experience for Ms Xego-Sovita when she visited the site. SA Tourism tracked its work on domestic tourism in order to gauge the impact made. SA Tourism had set its own target of 70% success of activities and 30% success of conversion. It had to be measured on a quarterly basis. Ring-fenced funds had to be reported on a quarterly basis.
 
On inculcating a culture of travel in South Africans, SA Tourism wished to disrupt peoples spending patterns. For example stokvel payouts could be used to travel. The various provinces had different messages. SA Tourism had a campaign on provinces called Connexions 9. Its focus was to differentiate between products and messages between different provinces. In some provinces safari was big and in others adventure tourism was big. The Eastern Cape had the best adventure tourism area, and had the highest bungee jump in the world at Bloukrans. On partnerships, SA Tourism did work with the SAHRA. SA Tourism would take on board comments made by Members. Business event ambassadors had been implemented. Having ambassadors for different age groups was a programme that SA Tourism should perhaps drive. On low cost airlines, SA Tourism had not only dealt with Mango Airlines but had also spoken to the airline SA Express. There was also a new airline called Fly Blue Crane. The Sho’t Left Campaign looked at first time travellers and the new experiences that they would have. Real life people were used in campaigns and not models. On a quarterly basis, SA Tourism reviewed its performance in general and considered initiatives to close gaps.   

The Chairperson said rural areas were always a concern. Were lodges and bed and breakfasts in rural areas utilised, and how could tourists be encouraged to use them? 

Mr Nzima responded that rural areas were covered. Campaigns were aimed at the whole of SA. SA Tourism however had limitations on its budget. Some of the work was done by NDT, by provinces and cities.

The Chairperson invited the NDT to make inputs.

Ms Mosupye, on support of local events at local level, said a framework was in place. The NDT worked with provinces and districts to support local events. Marula festivals were held in Phalaborwa and in KwaZulu-Natal. The NDT not only worked with municipalities but with the Department of Arts and Culture as well. As far as research was concerned the NDT’s focus was on the supply side. At present a survey was being done on the needs of Small, Medium and Micro Enterprises (SMMEs). The NDT would also look at the impact that events had. The NDT did product development and the focus at present was on culture and heritage. Many of the heritage sites were in rural areas and there could be a knock on effect for local establishments to benefit ie to provide food and lodging. The NDT was rolling out a strategy on culture that would bring in host communities. In the past there had been challenges on the sustainability of products. Affordability was an issue that came up all the time. The NDT tried to identify products that were sustainable for the market to grow. There was also focus on social tourism. It played a huge role in history to uplift countries especially after the World Wars.

Committee Minutes
Committee Minutes dated the 4 September 2015 were adopted as amended.

Draft Joint Oversight Visit to KwaZulu-Natal 14-18 September 2015 PC Arts, PC Tourism and PC Environmental Affairs
The Committee Secretary Mr Jerry Boltina briefly took the Committee through its Programme for the oversight visit. 
 
The meeting was adjourned.