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Leaders and stakeholders in the southern African tourism industry came together to put the cards on the table at a tourism summit ahead of the 2010 World Cup
In association with Cape Media Corporation and its Leadership and Explore South Africa magazines, the Tourism Leaders Summit was held at Kwa Maritane Bush Lodge in the North West’s Pilanesberg Reserve from 28 to 29 April 2010. Various stakeholders in both the public and private sectors met to discuss the most pressing issues facing the tourism industry.
Speakers representing organisations such as the Southern African Tourism Services Association (SATSA), the Federated Hospitality Association of Southern Africa (Fedhasa), the Tourism Enterprise Partnership (TEP), South African National Parks (SANParks) and the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) shared their views on various topics relating to the tourism industry.
The hottest topic on the summit agenda was the development of a sustainable post-2010 growth strategy, with the majority of discussions over the two days relating either directly or indirectly to a common theme that can be loosely described as “the situation that the South African tourism industry will find itself in after the 2010 Soccer World Cup”.
Peter Metcalfe, founder of the Foundation for the Development of Africa and vice chairperson of the Local Government Business Network, was Master of Ceremonies for the event that brought to light issues around key topics such as the IDC’s planning and implementation of funding tourism ventures.
“Tourism 2020”, presented by Pieter de Bruin, head of tourism at First National Bank, concentrated on how South African businesses should capitalise, but not exploit opportunities presented by the World Cup, strive for service excellence, and sell ‘experiences’ (people, culture, food) rather than the country in its own right.
Katie Sanchez, business programmes consultant at the Disney Institute, gave an interesting talk on her organisation’s work in South Africa, promoting a welcoming attitude toward guests among various service-related employees in the South African tourism industry through recognising their needs and expectations, and then exceeding these.
Brett Dungan, chief executive officer of Fedhasa, rocked the boat a little with a discussion around inclusive and sustainable tourism, starting off by pointing out that South Africans cannot expect to promote tourism if they are too apathetic to take an interest in simple mechanisms of national pride such as the national anthem and specifically the 2010 Diski Dance.
He went on to discuss the need for those in the industry to use all the available resources to ensure our readiness for tourists, come the World Cup.
CEO of SATSA Michael Tatalias put forward his proposed approach to service excellence for 2010 and beyond outlining critical considerations such as matching market and opportunity (i.e. seasons, cost, etc.) and the infrastructure we need to have in place in order to maximise tourism growth such as air access, rooms and local transport, among others.
TEP CEO Siva Pillay put forward in his talk the immaculate business plan by which the TEP operates on the growth and development of small tourism businesses. He explained how, with a primary focus on sustainability and the long term, TEP funds hundreds of tourism enterprises around South Africa, so far having invested R918 million toward small ventures.
The presentation on skills training by the CEO of the Tourism, Hospitality and Sport Sector Education and Training Authority, Mike Tsotetsi described the growth in economic and sports tourism, the importance of effective outsourcing, and the need to reduce the gap between skills and demand in the tourism industry.
Giju Varghese, head of business development at SANParks, spoke about the importance of public-private partnerships in South Africa’s national parks as a means of reducing reliability on state funding and improving existing operational efficiencies, as well as transferring risk from the public to private sector to improve investor confidence. Dr Susanna Ubomba-Jaswa of Statistics South Africa explained how the organisation’s work in tourism statistics, mainly based around arrivals, can be used by those in the industry for their benefit.
She also explained that as useful as this data can be, it is only useful when used in context with a baseline for comparison, and cannot always be interpreted literally for reasons such as the inevitable grey line in the definition of “tourists” and “guests”.
Dr Ubomba-Jaswa’s colleague Joyce Essel-Mensah explained the ways in which statistics are gathered via surveys and others, and reinforced the limitations of data due to problems with classification, coverage and a lack of respondents for a large enough sample from which to come to conclusions.
Corporate social investment (CSI) liaison and communications manager at the Greater Rustenberg Community Foundation (GRCF), Lana Lovasic discussed the Foundation’s involvement in community development. She expressed concern over the fact that tourism ventures often use CSI for the sole purpose of creating good publicity, and in reality are not aware of how actually to implement them.
Lovasic further discussed the successes that the GRCF has had so far in “incentive funding”, where promising businesses are being developed sustainably.
MC Metcalfe gave his summation of the event and picked out a few key issues raised during discussions over the course of the summit. He suggested that perhaps the most pertinent of these was, firstly, speculation over South Africa’s readiness as host of the 2010 World Cup and industry confusion regarding affiliation with Fifa, Match, etc.; and secondly, the sustainability of infrastructure, employment, etc. after 2010.
Another critical point of debate was the need to capitalise on our “tourism resources” and sell the “South African experience” to the visitor.
In conclusion, the summit shed light on a number of pressing issues, unearthing many concerns around crucial matters that were discussed in a round table debate which followed each presentation, ensuring that no question went unanswered.
Simon Capstick-Dale
