It was more than five years ago that tourism was recognised as earning more revenue for South Africa than gold.

But years on, the importance of the tourism sector has yet to be acknowledged across all levels of government as an important economic contributor to this country. This, says the proposed National Tourism Sector Strategy, is the result of a lack of understanding of the industry as it is multi-dimensional and information about the industry, its size, employment, investment, etc is not always clear. The proposed strategy, due for comment by the private sector by July 31, deals with this issue [from page 32] intensively. It states that while government does recognise tourism as an important sector, this does not filter down into planning, budgets and actions across all the departments and levels within government. So effectively, we aren’t all singing off the same hymn sheet! As the tourism sector is impacted by so many sectors, many of the areas that need improvement fall within the ambit of other departments like safety and security, transport, and arts and culture for instance. The tourism ministry, says the strategy, does not have the authority to instruct these ministries to adjust their plans and strategies to support the tourism sector. This also means that these national and local government departments in other sectors have little understanding of tourism and the role it has to play in the country’s economy. The proposed strategy addresses this, saying that the profile of the tourism industry must be raised at a national government level and within parliament to ensure that these government departments understand the industry’s importance and impact and therefore co-operate and assist where necessary. It also says general co-ordination needs to be improved between the tourism department and other departments impacting on tourism to ensure that these departments consider tourism when developing and implementing their own strategies and actions. Tourism planning, says the strategy, is needed at all levels but there should be alignment between what happens within the different spheres of government. It says: “Local and provincial authorities often do their own thing, without consideration for what is happening at national level and similarly, national organisations such as SA Tourism and the National Department of Tourism often carry out projects and marketing campaigns without proper consultation with provinces and local authorities.” But before we can even influence other departments, we need to educate our own parliamentary portfolio committee so that they can better understand the issues our industry faces. The tourism sector needs their commitment and willingness to learn about the tourism sector. Why for example was a tourism parliamentary portfolio committee meeting held on the last day of Indaba, when these parliamentarians should have actually attended Indaba? These efforts to educate should be driven by the private sector and funded by government but only once the industry has identified which national departments need to be liaised with, eg. arts and culture, Home Affairs, transport etc… and once we’ve ascertained what drives them, what their mandates are, and how we fit within these mandates. And then we need to look at a local and provincial government level, identify which of these departments need to be educated and start focusing our efforts on these. Also on the action plan in the proposed strategy is the influence of government in terms of the development of tourism through initiatives such as the obligatory use of tourism businesses that adhere to certain principles and standards like BEE compliance and grading, for instance. If you have any views on this issue or how the sector’s strategy needs to be changed with regard to raising the profile of tourism within government and parliament, simply submit your comments to the National Department of Tourism at strategy@tourism.gov.za well ahead of the July 31 deadline.
 
The countdown is on with only 39 days left to comment – don’t miss the opportunity to make your voice heard.