Transformation a top priority for KZN’s tourism sector
IT makes logical sense to transform the tourism industry and get more people into the mainstream economy, as it was good for the growth and development of the sector, Sihle Zikalala, the MEC for Economic Development, Tourism and Environmental Affairs said.
And while the government remained steadfast in condemning those “who resort to violence and thuggery, utilising the pretext that they also want to enter the mainstream economy, we must also be awake to the long-term consequences of not consciously creating an environment for all of our people, particularly Blacks and Africans as well as the youth and women, to participate in the economy in general,” he said.
The MEC was giving the keynote address at the Tourism Kwa-Zulu-Natal-hosted breakfast at the Hilton Hotel, the first official business of the three-day Tourism Indaba at the Inkosi Albert Luthuli Convention Centre in Durban.
He told guests that six new airlines had introduced direct international flights into and out of Durban’s King Shaka International Airport over the last year, thanks to a large extent, to the work of the Routes Development Committee, which aimed to improve global connectivity to the province. This brought the number of non-stop flights to 11 international destinations and also linked the province to major airline hubs in Dubai, Doha, Addis Ababa and Istanbul, which gave passengers onward connections to more than 700 international destinations.
“This is a major achievement considering that when we hosted the 2010 FIFA Soccer World Cup, we had connection with only two international destinations,” he pointed out.
But it would be remiss of the government to invest all the resources it did to improve the performance of tourism in the province without also addressing what should be everyone’s priority – the transformation of the tourism sector.
It was vital that the benefits of tourism be felt by all.
The task of the tourism sector, and by extension, key players in the sector, “was to ensure that while we grow and develop this sector, our ultimate objective is for tourism to contribute positively to our national economic performance, get our people out of poverty and, critically, assist us in building a national democratic society, characterised by unity, equality and prosperity,” he said.
While his Department and Tourism KZN ran programmes to empower emerging black-owned tourism businesses, this alone would not go far to addressing true transformation in tourism.
What was needed was commitment from both the public and private sectors, “commitment not only with regards to job creation but to ensuring active and meaningful participation of black businesses in major tourism transactions, as well as tourism investments.”
A study was being done to find out who actually benefitted from the meetings, incentives, conference and exhibition industry.
The Durban KZN Convention Bureau was already adopting a roadmap towards transforming the industry, with the plan looking at the number of legacy projects facilitated by the organisers of business events, the number of mentorship opportunities for SMMEs, the number of emerging SMME opportunities created, the number of job opportunities given to the youth and the number of business events that had promoted township and rural tourism.
Tourism should not only be seen as an activity for the urban areas, but the rural areas should also benefit, he stressed in a later breakfast discussion.
He was pleased to announce that seven black-owned SMME businesses would take part in an incubation programme during the financial year and two African-owned business events suppliers would receive backing to attend a conference. One of the two African-owned professional conference organisers had also won a contract to run an international conference.
Considering there were only two African women-owned professional conference organisers, there was room for improvement, he said.
In the later discussion, the MEC said it was worrying that there were only two black-owned hotels in the Durban area.
The provincial government was taking action to address the need to improve tourism infrastructure, he also said.
One project was the plan to develop world-class resorts by international resort and hotel owners. Emphasis would be placed on constructing internationally-branded hospitality facilities to appeal to the mass-market traveller.
Investment prospectus documents were being drawn up to showcase KZN’s resort development potential, underlining the importance of attracting hotel and resort investors and this was “being vigorously promoted using a range of critical international investment platforms”, he said.