Chairperson, I am responding to the hon member Gumede on the memorandum of understanding signed with the Kenyan Minister for tourism last week. Every year Africa receives only 5% of inbound tourism, and what we would like to do as the South African government is to change our relationships with the rest of the African continent to ensure that we get our due share. We believe we can increase considerably that 5%.
We would also like to increase the tourism flow between South Africa and Kenya. Ten years ago we received only 16 000 tourists from Kenya annually. A year ago it was up to 28 000. We believe we can also improve in that regard.
The purpose of this memorandum of understanding is to change the relationship that we have had historically with Kenya. It was a relationship on the African continent based on intense competition which, I believe, was to the detriment of both of us. I believe we can change this relationship to one in which, yes, we compete, but compete in terms of improving standards in both countries and, even more than that, become partners.
As the hon member mentioned, we will concentrate on the exchange of information: tourism statistics and scholarships. In my view, there are exciting opportunities awaiting our investors in Kenya. The tourism industry is poised to take off over the next few years and, certainly, as investors our businesspeople can also benefit. Indaba South Africa is the premier marketing platform on our continent, and we have now opened the indaba floor for the first time ever to another African country, namely Kenya. They will be our guest at the indaba next year. Thank you. [Applause.]