World Tourism Day
ALL our people and tourists deserve equal access to our attractions and facilities, according to Tourism Minister, Derek Hanekom.
“When we talk about “Tourism for all, promoting universal accessibility”, it is primarily about people with disabilities and the challenges they face in accessing our tourism facilities.
“We also want them to enjoy the dignity they deserve so they are not kept closeted away from enjoying the things that most of us take for granted.
“As far as possible, airports, hotels, and other tourism facilities must cater to meet the needs of people living with disabilities”, said Hanekom in his opening remarks during the 2016 Public Lecture held in Bloemfontein on Monday to mark Tourism Month.
Under the United Nation World Tourism Organisation 2016 World Tourism Day theme, “Tourism for All – Promoting Universal Accessibility”, the lecture focussed on how South Africa can enhance and promote Universal Accessibility (UA) in tourism.
The Public Lecture is a platform hosted in partnership by the Minister of Tourism, the host province in this year’s case the Free State, and an institution of higher learning in that province (Central University of Technology), aimed at exchanging ideas with various sector stakeholders including industry, academia, policy makers and practitioners in order to enhance strategies and policy decision-making within the tourism sector.
The Department of Tourism identifies UA in tourism as an important initiative to enhance South Africa’s competitiveness.
“In the survey we conducted on Provincial Tourism Departments and government-owned provincial parks, we found that there was insufficient technical knowledge of what needs to be done to achieve compliance.
“More training is required to enable staff to serve people with special needs,” highlighted the Minister.
Representing the Central University of Technology (CUT), Professor Albert Strydom committed his institution to digging deeper in order to understand the 21st century challenges facing the tourism industry in South Africa and the world at large to allow ourselves to have a dynamic, engaging analysis of our constitutional rights to equality, to provide solutions to the sector, and direct our thoughts into these issues that are dear to the CUT community, our parents in government, busi- TOURISM MONTH is celebrated annually in September with the aim of encouraging South Africans to explore our own country. It also provides the tourism industry with an opportunity for a sustained, heightened month-long focus on the importance of domestic tourism to the economy.
The Department of Tourism is celebrating the 2016 Tourism Month under the theme: “Tourism For All”, which is in line with World Tourism Day theme “Tourism For All – Promoting Universal Accessibility".
The “Tourism for All” theme gives us an opportunity to promote universal accessibility while encouraging the tourism industry to cater for all South ness and industry, media and the general public at large.
“As we plan together and invest resources in a collaborative way, our partnership Africans.
Universal Access is the design of products, environments, and services that can be used by all people. It includes the removal of cultural, social and other barriers that prevent people with disabilities from benefiting from tourism facilities.
In South Africa the theme goes a step further as it promotes tourism to all will enable us to examine ways in which our province can tackle the growing demands for universal access and produce intended outcomes of South Africans irrespective of financial status, gender and race. To ensure this, the Department of Tourism is working hard to ensure that all South Africans experience tourism and its benefits derived.
Tourism Month aims to encourage South Africans to travel domestically to get a better understanding of the affordable, exciting and world class attractions that are available on their own doorstep.
This dedicated month normally takes place in lesser visited provinces to give them an opportunity to showcase their tourism facilities and attractions. This year the focus will be on the Free State with activities planned at Gariep Dam, Bloemfontein and Parys. Universal Accessibility and restore some dignity to the downtrodden”, said Strydom.
In her keynote address, Herina Wentzel, national dir- ector at the National Council for Persons with Physical Disabilities in South Africa, explained that accessible tourism for all is not only
Derek Hanekom, Tourism Minister.
about providing access to persons with disabilities, but also addresses the creation of universally designed environments that can support people that may have temporary disabilities, families with young children, the ever increasing ageing population as well as creating a safer environment for employees to work in.
“The Bill of Human Rights in South Africa supersedes all legislation in the country, because everybody is equal, and everybody must be treated as such,” said Wentzel.
She explained the distinction between universal design, a set of considerations made to ensure that a product, service, and/or environment is usable by everyone without the need for adaptation or specialised design, and accessibility, which describes the degree to which a product, service, and/or environment is made available for everyone.
“Whereas the former is a design methodology, the latter is its most common associated metric.
“Tourism is about experience, so what can you as a service provider in tourism do to give people a memorable similar experience for everyone,” asked Wentzel in her closing.
The keynote address was followed by a panel discussion, led by the following speakers from various organisations, who all focused on the experiences and advocacy for people living with disabilities, including success stories, challenges and areas of improvement: Francois Deysel – Deaf SA; Simon Netshituni – Blind SA; Freddie Botha scope SA; Pam Taylor – Flamingo Tours and Disabled Ventures; and, Gary Hopkins – I love coffee.
A full presentations of the keynote speaker and panel members will be loaded on: www.tourism.gov.za.
In his vote of thanks, the MEC for Economic, Small Business Development, Tourism and Environmental Affairs in the Free State Mr Sam Mashinini acknowledged all the Public Lecture partners, for tackling the UA challenges in the tourism sector.
“We need to ask ourselves how we ensure that universal accessibility in our space is improved.
“As we close this year’s edition of Tourism Month, we wish to invite you to all our activities the province still has to offer in this month.
“These are the World Tourism Day Celebration, the National Tourism Career Expo, the Trade Bridge, Macufe and the Flower Festival”, said MEC Mashinini.