Chairperson, hon Minister, special delegates, permanent delegates, members of the select committee, the Tourism Amendment Bill has its origin in the White Paper on tourism and, more specifically, in the tourist guide policy which was prepared and issued by the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism in 1999. It seeks to regulate the tourist guide profession by requiring the registration of tourist guides, and that these guides abide by a code of conduct and ethics.
To understand the purpose of this Bill, it is important to bear in mind that the tourist guide is the most intimate point of contact with foreign and domestic tourists. The tourist guide's conduct will therefore, to a large extent, determine whether a tourist returns or not.
Furthermore, given the expansion of the tourism industry, caused by its transformation, it is likely that the demand for tourist guides will continue to rise. It is essential, therefore, that the Government puts in place a mechanism through which it can monitor the quality of service provided by the growing number of tourist guides.
The Bill envisages a critical role for provinces in this process. This is necessary, given the critically important role played by provinces in the development and promotion of the tourism industry in South Africa. It gives the MEC responsible for tourism in each province the power to appoint an officer in the province to act as a provincial registrar of tourist guides.
The provincial registrar will be responsible for the registration of all tourist guides in the province and the maintenance of a register for this purpose; the issuing of registration certificates and badges to tourist guides who have complied with the registration procedure; the promotion and development of the tourist guiding sector in the respective provinces; dealing with complaints; the withdrawal of the registration of tourist guides who have become disqualified to act as tourist guides; and the exercise of disciplinary powers in respect of tourist guides.
The provision made in the Bill for the participation of provincial governments in the registration of tourist guides and in the preparation of a code of conduct and ethics with which all tourist guides must comply, should therefore be welcomed.
The competence referred to in the proposed new section 21A(2) includes not only qualifications, but also unit standards. Subsection (3) deals with exclusions. No one who has failed to go through a validation programme will be registered as a guide. The validation is specifically aimed at people who are currently acting as guides. They will have two years in which to go through the process.
Registration will only have to be renewed every two years. There will be a fee involved, as the Minister has said, on renewal. However, one will not necessarily be tested again. The initial validation test would essentially be a once-off thing to move people from the old system into the new one. In the new system, when one renews registration, what will be required is proof of what one has been doing in the intervening years in terms of tours and training.
The proposed section 21(B) deals with competence, and refers to the South African Qualifications Authority Act, which falls outside the department's jurisdiction. Linking tourist guiding with the above Act ensures that there will be nationally recognised qualifications so that people can receive credit for the training they have gone through.
It also enables tour operators who train guides to access funds from the skills levy. If their trainees go through a programme that is registered on the National Qualifications Framework, this will encourage operators to take on guides as learners or apprentices.
With these words we support this Bill. We hope that it will, indeed, bring about transformation, and that those disadvantaged tour guides who were not skilled as such, but skilled in their line of action, will also be given an opportunity to participate in the entire industry. [Applause.]