Chairperson, Ministers, Deputy Ministers, hon members, firstly I would like to thank the hon member Abrahams for highlighting the Western Cape's successes. The Western Cape wants to commend the national Department of Tourism, SA Tourism and the entire industry for registering the highest growth in international arrivals in many years. Although the 15,1% achieved in 2010 comes on the back of a highly successful Soccer World Cup, it was achieved when the world economy was recovering from one of the worst economic downturns. We need to build on this performance.
The 2010 Soccer World Cup has also opened up new markets, and the Western Cape agrees with Minister Van Schalkwyk that those markets need to be explored without compromising our presence in the core markets of Western Europe and North America. The Western Cape's marketing agency is in fact working very closely with the national Department of Tourism and SA Tourism when engaging these new markets.
The Western Cape understands the important role that business and events tourism plays in driving the tourism economy, and therefore there is a need for the national Department of Tourism to lead discussions for the development of a mega-events strategy that will assist in positioning the province to increase business tourism.
Although the Western Cape supports the idea of a national conventions bureau, we need clarity on the role that this institution will play in relation to the Cape Town and Western Cape Convention Bureau as the provincial destination marketing organisation.
The Western Cape agrees with the critical role that events play in promoting and growing a destination and looks forward to additional support from the department and SA Tourism in respect of our iconic events such as the Jazz Festival, Cape Minstrel marches, the Cape Epic race, the Cape to Rio yacht race and other events.
The Western Cape fully supports the National Tourism Sector Strategy in driving the tourism economy with a key focus on creating jobs with the help of the national Department of Tourism and Expanded Public Works Programme, EPWP. The national Department of Tourism has identified infrastructure development as a way of responding to some of the challenges of meeting its targets for job creation.
In addition, we believe it is a favourable improvement that soft skills are also considered for tourism EPWP funding. The Western Cape wishes to stress that the national department should continue to work with both the respective provincial and national governments in finalising the projects that receive funding.
The Constitution provides that tourism is a concurrent competence between national and provincial governments and that local government is responsible for local tourism. This is our greatest strength in providing the necessary strategic emphasis to grow the tourism industry as a priority sector.
It is also a sector in which we experience the greatest challenges with regard to public sector roles, responsibilities and budgets between the three spheres of government. We need to understand our respective roles and mandates in order to have alignment and an impact on delivery. We need the national Minister to drive discussions that will lead to this common understanding.
The Western Cape looks forward to closer co-operation and alignment between the tourism institutions at national, provincial and local level. I thank you.