Deputy Speaker, the development and promotion of sustainable tourism in South Africa is one of the core elements towards our country's continued economic success and growth. Growing at three times the world average, tourism in South Africa is currently a high-growth multibillion rand industry.
The department has set itself the impressive goal of wanting to increase the number of foreign tourists' arrivals to 15 million by the year 2020. This requires appropriate and pragmatic legislation.
This amendment Bill seeks inter alia, to enable us to keep pace with this rapid growth of the number of tourists in South Africa. It also seeks to bring about a greater cohesiveness between the spheres of government and the private sector and thus maximise the benefits received from this industry.
Being a priority economic sector and key producer of employment, tourism and its appendant legislation must remain current and on trend. Appropriate development guidelines and regulatory measures are key in this endeavour. Unco-ordianted, inconsistent and fragmented tourism planning must be relegated to the past.
This Bill's proposed legal framework seeks to aid with the implementation of the tourism White Paper and align the principle act with government objectives and the Constitution. These are the challenges that our government is facing and quite rightly these are some of the challenges that this Bill seeks to address.
Recent tourism initiatives such as the What's your Big 5? ad campaign, which will be broadcast to a TV audience of an estimated six million viewers in the US, aimed at promoting South Africa as a destination beyond its iconic Big 5 safari excursions, is an example of lateral thinking initiatives that must be embarked upon in order to sustain tourism growth in this country.
Locally, the safety of tourists in our urban, rural and national parks areas must be and remain central in our thinking if we are serious about the promotion and development of tourism. Our law enforcement agencies must be adequately capacitated so as to be capable of providing protection services to our visitors.
Further tourism protection through the office of the Tourism Protector is also very welcome and long overdue. This will go a long way in ensuring proper service delivery by our tour operators to our guests and appropriate redress and sanction in the event of failure or substandard delivery of tourism services.
In conclusion, the National Registrar of Tourist Guides, as well as a single code of conduct and ethics of tourist guides will also greatly improve, regulate and standardise service delivery. This is a welcome Bill which is fully supported by the Inkatha Freedom Party. I thank you. [Applause.]