Chairperson, if this ANC-led government is serious about using the tourism industry to boost economic development and create employment, it needs to demonstrate that it understands what drives tourism growth. Tourism is basically a customer-driven service industry. It cannot be an ideological tool for social redress and voter appeasement.
The first strategic theme of the new national Department of Tourism is people empowerment and job creation, followed by tourism sector transformation, sustainable work creation, and growing the culture of domestic tourism. Identifying and growing markets comes further down the list.
There are many noble aims within its strategic themes, but are these the department's responsibility? It seems the department wants to shape and control the industry rather than facilitate the expansion of professional entrepreneurial tourism. Much of the department's newly apportioned tasks seem to clash with the responsibilities of the Departments of Rural Development and Land Reform, Trade and Industry, and Economic Development.
Is the new Department of Tourism trying to justify its existence by making work for itself by taking on the other departments' tasks? Most of its new tasks are probably best left to the private sector that is mindful of its critical role in growing the economy and jobs.
For tourism to flourish, it is critical to identify the most lucrative source of tourists and determine what they want. We must package offerings that entice them to spend their hard-earned cash in South Africa, rather than in Australia and the Far East, our main competitors.
If marketing South Africa as a tourism destination of choice to those with disposable income is done well, the economic benefits for our GDP and job creation are logical outcomes. But the department has turned its focus inwards, and expects its main tourism growth to come from within Africa. I fear our tourism industry will not be as financially successful as it could be because of this.
There is government enthusiasm to drive the development of community-based tourism to alleviate rural poverty. This is not a quick fix for joblessness. There are few community-based tourism success stories anywhere in the world. Our many failed cultural villages, heritage sites and craft centres are silent testimony to the difficulty of creating sustainable livelihoods this way.
We believe government should create an environment, free of bureaucratic and ideological impediments, to enable hard-working tourism entrepreneurs of all skin colours to grow and share the benefits of their good ideas. One only has to look at what the government has done to SA Tourism to be concerned about its understanding of where tourism growth comes from.
SA Tourism has done a brilliant job, with inadequate funds, of marketing South Africa to the world's football fans and a worldwide television audience. It has won numerous international awards over many years for its excellence. From our Auditor-General it has achieved eight consecutive unqualified audits, a unique achievement for any entity overseen by government.
But never before has SA Tourism been as weak as it is now - when it should be surging ahead to capitalise on the unique market exposure that the 2010 Fifa World Cup offers our nation. It is weak because of the ANC-led government's insistence on demographic bean-counting when it comes to filling strategic posts. No R820-million, internationally active corporation would appoint as its CEO a person unqualified and inexperienced to do the job. But the government did this. It appointed a government employee, an ambassador with no corporate management or marketing experience to head SA Tourism.
There are those who say that this ambassador-to-SA Tourism CEO model worked in the past. I counter that the global tourism market of 2010 and beyond, operating in an economically bruised world, is vastly different to that of 10 years ago. Tourism - and South Africa in particular - is tougher to sell now.
Alas, this new appointment led to the resignation of the person who ran the organisation for the past year. Didi Moyle did three jobs at SA Tourism - Acting CEO, Chief Operating Officer and Acting Research Officer. Now this experienced tourism professional is lost to the organisation, and will be sorely missed.
I am sure that the excellent team she left behind will support the new CEO as she finds her feet, but she'd better find them fast and develop the backbone to fight her ANC masters so that SA Tourism can be funded properly to do its job well.
In its misguided belief that South Africa's natural beauty sells itself, the government has cut its contribution to SA Tourism by R50 million, or 20%, at precisely the time we should be bombarding the world with our tourism offerings. And next year they plan to do it again by R53 million; and the following year by R57 million. This is a total cut of R160 million to the budget that SA Tourism was previously allocated over the Medium-Term Economic Framework, money essential to capitalise on the long-term tourism promise of the World Cup.
These cuts to SA Tourism's budget are irresponsible, given the government's lofty pronouncements about how tourism will grow the economy and jobs. Government is creating unrealistic expectations from an inhibiting strategy. We urge the department to give SA Tourism the respect this strategic asset deserves and allocate it appropriate resources. [Applause.]