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The Minister of Trade and Industry, Dr Rob Davies has approved and gazetted the Amended Tourism Sector Code in terms of Section 9 (1) of the Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment Act (B-BBEE Act 53 of 2003) as amended by B-BBEE Act 46 of 2013. The gazette means that the Amended Tourism Sector Code is legally binding to entities in the tourism sector from the date of publication which was 20 November 2015. The gazetted Sector Code took into account comments and inputs that were received from the members of the public during the 60 days commentary period.

Minister Davies says the B-BBEE Tourism Sector Code deviates from the Exempted Micro Enterprises, Qualifying Small Enterprises and Large Enterprise thresholds as set out in the Amended Generic Codes of Good Practice.

“This is to address the unique feature of the sector. The following thresholds will apply to the tourism sector: Exempted Micro Enterprise which is an enterprise that makes a total revenue of less than R 5 Million per annum (R 10 million in the Generic Codes), Qualifying Small Enterprise is an enterprise which makes a total revenue of between R 5 Million and R 45 Million per annum (between R 10 – R50 million in the Generic Codes), whilst a Large Enterprise in the tourism sector is an enterprise which makes a total revenue of over R 45 Million per annum (above R 50 million in the Generic Codes). These unique thresholds will ensure that as many enterprises in the sector contribute towards transformation, which will not be the case if the sector was using the Amended Generic Codes,” says Davies.

He adds that another key highlight for the tourism sector is that under the Ownership element the compliance target is 30% + 1 Vote, rather than the 25% + 1 Vote under Generic Codes.

“The 30% sectorial target will ensure an increase in transferring economic assets to and mainstreaming of black people in the sector. Also, to create more opportunities for emerging black owned enterprises across the supply and value chains of established businesses, the sector has set the target for supplier development at 3% NPAT which is higher than the 2% of the Generic Codes.  An implementation of supplier development in the sector will lead to job creation and overall growth in the sector,” stated Minister Davies.

The other key highlight of the Amended Tourism Sector Code is an allocation of more points as compared to the Generic Codes for procurement spend from empowering suppliers that are at least 51% black owned. The weighting points allocated is 12 in order to incentivise support for sustainable growth of black owned enterprises.

Tourism Sector stakeholders are of the view that the socio-economic development element should be used to support the growth of the sector. In this regard three (3) bonus points have been allocated for scoring for the entities that contribute towards Tourism Marketing South Africa (TOMSA) levy, which will assist in marketing and growth of the sector in particular for the black owned enterprises and marginalized areas.

Minister Davies would like to thank the Tourism Sector Charter Council, and all stakeholders that were involved in the finalisation of the Amended Tourism Sector Code.

Link to the code
http://www.thedti.gov.za/gazzettes/39430.pdf

Issued by The Department of Trade and Industry