Chairperson, hon Minister, Deputy Minister and hon members, the tourism industry in South Africa has shown phenomenal growth since our first democratic elections in 1994, when just more than three million foreign visitors arrived on our shores. Research indicates that domestic tourism decreased by 8% in 2009, with 30 million trips undertaken compared to the 33 million in 2008.
Tourism is a priority economic sector in the Medium-Term Strategic Framework, MTSF, which identified, among other things, the creation of decent work and sustainable livelihoods. The MTSF also identified accelerated growth and transformation of the economy to create decent work and sustainable livelihoods; and a comprehensive rural development strategy linked to land and agrarian reform, with specific mention of tourism as an economic activity in rural areas with the pursuance of African advancement as strategic priorities.
The White Paper on the Development and Promotion of Tourism of 1996 states that tourism is driven by the private sector and firmly based in local communities. Chairperson, I cannot agree more. Local governments should influence tourism products in how they manage their socioeconomic environment and how they provide services to their communities. Local government has also a role to play in providing leadership and the necessary planning to ensure that their communities and local businesses get the most out of tourism and to minimise any negative effects.
However, despite the significance of tourism, local governments have few dedicated or part-time tourism personnel members. Experience and knowledge of tourism are extremely limited while, with rare exceptions, no budget is allocated for tourism planning and development activities.
The entrenched belief that the Department of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs inherited from the former national department responsible for local government is that there is no need to plan or budget for tourism support.
A radical change of attitude as far as this matter is concerned is long overdue. I must, however, admit that the SA Local Government Association, Salga, is already collecting best practices information on successful community-based and community-benefiting tourism projects, and is documenting them to assist other communities.
Tourism product development is currently driven mainly by the private sector, with some efforts by national, provincial and local government; although this has been largely unsuccessful. There is no co-ordination from a national level to ensure alignment between the marketing promises made at national level, and actual product development.
Tourism does not follow political boundaries. Often neighbouring municipalities or provinces plan to develop very similar experiences within their areas, but lose sight of the fact that the product offering can be improved through co-ordination with each other and other parties.
Furthermore, there are a number of rural areas within South Africa that have the potential to be turned into tourism destinations, but many of these are not being developed. Such areas present opportunities to develop new and different tourism products to address the change in requirements of the market. Hence there is a need also to recognise rural tourism as an element or part of niche product development.
However, it would seem that the growth of the tourism industry has not yielded genuine benefits for rural communities. They could benefit from and participate in the tourism industry, but their level of awareness of the industry and tourism skills are limited. Hence, some tourism investors and operators have taken advantage of the natural and cultural resources belonging to communities without any benefits accruing to the communities themselves.
In some cases, unrealistic expectations have been created about the potential benefits of tourism and the timeframe within which such benefits may be realised. When these promised benefits then do not materialise soon enough or at all, communities lose faith in well-intentioned operations.
While these issues have created reluctance among communities to consider tourism, many private-sector operators have reservations about community involvement in projects, resulting in a lack of progress in delivering tourism benefits to communities. Tourism awareness should be introduced at an early age, encouraging tourism already at school level. With greater knowledge and understanding of the sector, communities are more likely to protect and value tourism products operating in their areas as well as embrace foreign tourists who visit their areas instead of being hostile towards them.
As far as rural tourism is concerned, I would like to blow the trumpet of my own province, the Limpopo province. A tourist destination that certainly deserves more attention and intensive marketing is the Kingdom of Modjadji, the Rain Queen.
Situated in the Limpopo province and comprising a rural community of over 150 villages, the land of Modjadji is an impressive setting of ancient baobab trees, untouched bushveld, breathtaking mountain ranges and an abundance of wild creatures, flora and birdlife to complement this treasure chest of enchanting legends, myths and culture.
We have the Mafikeng tourism development programme which focuses on tourism as the driver for stimulating local economies in two local municipalities in Limpopo, namely the Greater Tzaneen Local Municipality and the Greater Letaba Local Municipality.
At the heart of this focus is the process of extending a helping hand to local government to find suitable ways to meet the social, economic and material needs of citizens and community groups to improve the quality of their lives.
The development is designed to attract tourism in order to generate an income for the local communities in the Limpopo province, where poverty is deep and where promoting the concept of tourism is based on locality and acceptability to natural resources, with development assistance playing an important role.
It is therefore a pity that the lodge next to the Modjadji Nature Reserve was not completed and left virtually abandoned, as it had been seen to be a project that could alleviate poverty in the region by creating jobs for the community members.
Ke fihlile phelet?ong ya dingangi?ano. Ka tsela ye ke duma gore dinagamagae di lebelelwe ka leihlo la nt?hot?ho gore badudi ba t?we ka gare ga bodiidi. Ke a leboga. [Legofsi.] [As I conclude, I would like to emphasise that more attention should be paid to the rural areas with the aim of poverty alleviation. I thank you. [Applause.]]