Hon Chairperson, Ministers present here, hon members, tourism is the largest and most rapidly expanding economic activity throughout the world.
As reported by the World Tourism Organisation, travel and tourism involved 625 million people internationally and generated $425 billion in the last decade. In South Africa, it has overtaken gold mining as the country's leading earner of foreign exchange, and it has yet to reach its full potential. It has not been referred to as South Africa's new gold without reason, as for every 12 foreign tourists that arrive in the country, one new job is created in local tourism. It should therefore be striving to attract even greater investment.
It is globally accepted and acknowledged that tourism has unrivalled potential to create sustainable jobs and grow the economy faster than any other sector. It is also on record that tourists and holiday markets account for 38 million leisure and religious trips around South Africa visiting friends and relatives each year.
In recent years our government has estimated that tourism accounts for 8% of growth in GDP. It is estimated that the tourism industry is well positioned to grow its GDP contribution to 12%, with the potential to create more than 500 000 jobs by 2014. The global tourism industry is expected to grow significantly in future, as personal income and leisure time increase and as transportation networks improve.
The continued improved performance of the tourism industry depends on the success with which conditions can be created for sustainable tourism growth and development in South Africa. As a strategic driver of tourism, the tourism branch of the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism has now become a department in its own right, namely the Department of Tourism under the leadership of Minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk. The new department's functions include the tourism industry; development through tourism research, business development and regulation; as well as tourism industry promotion through international tourism relations; human resource capacity-building; and national tourism support services.
The key objective of tourism in South Africa since the advent of democracy in South Africa 15 years ago has been to enhance its role as a driver of socioeconomic development. In this regard it has sought to develop the tourism industry and transform the sector by promoting the growth and competitiveness of the country as the tourist destination of choice, both locally and internationally.
In order to address the current challenges facing tourism and to prepare for the next five years, the department has developed a draft tourism growth strategy for 2010-2015, for managing tourism in the short, medium and long term. It has identified the tourism industry's global competitiveness as a critical success factor in growing the industry. To achieve global competitiveness, the department has been working with other departments such as Transport, Home Affairs and Public Enterprises to reduce the constraints such as limited flights, land transport limitations, and visa restrictions that might prevent potential tourists from visiting South Africa. It also aims to address challenges related to tourism safety, promote a culture of service excellence, expand the product base, and ensure quality assurance of products and services, with particular emphasis on the grading of accommodation establishments.
Tourist movement is not just hampered by air and land transport, but by delays and service delivery challenges in obtaining visas and passing through immigration points. It is therefore gratifying that Home Affairs has been able to introduce special visa arrangements which were applied during the Fifa Confederations Cup matches played in South Africa over the past two weeks. Hopefully this will be in full swing for the World Cup next year when South African tourism will reap the rewards of years of planning.
We are all aware of how important the 2010 World Cup is for South African tourism and how much it will boost the tourism industry. Tourism has also been identified as a priority area in the Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative for South Africa, Asgisa. The labour-intensive nature of the tourism sector facilitates its rapid growth by encouraging the creation of jobs, promoting foreign investment, and contributing to economic growth.
The increased expenditure on the tourism programme can also be attributed to the growing need for the transformation of the tourism industry. The main policy thrust in this regard has been the empowerment of small, micro and medium enterprises by facilitating access to tourism market opportunities, and also by the provision of professional assistance to them.
South Africa is a developmental state, which is faced with challenges of growing and stabilising the economy, ensuring food security, creating sustainable jobs, and eradicating poverty. The unprecedented socioeconomic benefits from tourism demonstrate that this is a strategic industry for investment and business opportunities. The growth of the tourism industry in South Africa should therefore be celebrated by all of us. This is testament to the fact that we are creating more jobs and more entrepreneurial opportunities. All South Africans should be more than 100% committed to growing the tourism industry through the work we do, through working with the industry and our partners, and through working harder with more passion and more determination.
The ANC government's focus is on developing our tourism industry to contribute to our vision of creating decent work for South Africans. It has committed itself to making the creation of decent work opportunities and sustainable livelihoods the primary focus of economic policies. Decent work embraces both the need for more jobs and for better quality jobs. The underlying factor is that all economic policies must address the challenges of poverty, unemployment, and inequality. The ANC government will use the tourism industry and all other sectors of our economy to achieve these goals. By working together to grow South Africa's tourism industry, we can all do more and much better to improve the quality of life of our people. I thank you. [Applause.]