Speech by Premier of the Eastern Cape Mrs Nosimo Balindlela, at the dinner with the Austrian International Marketing Council (IMC) delegation held in East London

Programme Director
Members of the Executive Council
Members of the District Council
Our honoured guests, the Lower Austrian delegation (Mr Heinz Boyer, Dr Bernard Tilp, Mr Claus Zeppelzauer, Ms Iris Waringer and Mr Herbert Halbwidl)
Honoured guests
Ladies and gentlemen

Tonight fulfils one of the promises both the Eastern Cape province delegation and the Lower Austrian government made in our last meeting in October 2007 that a delegation from the IMC University of Applied Sciences in Krems will visit our shores in January 2008. As the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of IMC, Mr Boyer said this morning, "this proves that competent and committed partners have the sincere intention to work jointly together on promising development projects for the Eastern Cape province."

I am honoured to welcome you tonight to the beautiful shores of the Eastern Cape province. This twinning arrangement and co-operation has a potential that is of value to the Eastern Cape in sustaining tourism prosperity, bio-fuels, agriculture and education. IMC University of Applied Sciences brings to the party its national and international expertise in the field of tourism and decades of positive tourism development.

We bring to the party our willingness
to work and develop our joint business and tourism projects so that not only will we be able to benefit economically from the 2010 event but that we can sustain any project started for decades beyond the soccer event. Remember we have only two years to 2010 and therefore we cannot only have short term plans.

For our economy to grow and remain growing this partnership will have to plan for a long term. I want to assure our delegation that we have sound policies for economic development. Our Provincial Growth and Development Plan (PGDP) is our 10 year policy from 2004 to 2014 which a decade ago identified tourism as a strategic economic boost for the mostly rural Eastern Cape Province.

I am aware that one on one meetings were held today between our relevant departments with their IMC counterparts, for example bio-fuels representatives with our MEC in Agriculture to give each other a clearer picture to supplement the visits by the delegation. However, let me start with the key issue of tourism. We have a tourism master plan framework which was crafted together with all the tourism related stakeholders. It aims to identify key issues associated with the tourism industry's development and to address such issues through appropriate programmes that will improve the Eastern Cape's tourism industry and its delivery to visitors, investors and communities.

Some of our strategic objectives in regard tourism are

*encouraging much more co-operation and joint effort in the
industry
*reskilling our own people on various projects
*increasing the level of tourism education and awareness
*improving access to tourist destinations
*attaining more overseas visitors to our shores.

Just to give you a little bit of numbers. Tourism is one of the fastest growing sectors which accounts for 10 percent of the provincial economy and it is the fastest growing creators of jobs in the country. It has the potential to create an estimated 45 000 new jobs per annum. In 2006 the Eastern Cape received 12,8 percentage or 4,3 million of SA's domestic trips, which places it on par with other famous destinations in South Africa.

We have a beautiful scenic land with seven ecosystems and our mild temperatures of 16 to 24 degrees averages with the best in the world, with an average of 300 sunshine days a year. I know that this morning you were sweating as we conducted the media briefing, obviously we are experiencing an unusual heat wave these few
days .Our primary features include its climate, ecology, cultural traditions, traditional architecture and its landforms.

In 2006 the tourism industry employed 37 823 people and contributed R10 billion in foreign spending. It is our vision to have a tourism sector that is making a maximum contribution to the Eastern Cape's economic, social and environmental well-being by continually promoting the Eastern Cape to existing and new markets as an exciting, vibrant and high quality destination. I am sure your past two days visits revealed to you a province with a vast scenic coastal landscape, clothed in greenery of fauna and flora. I agree with you when you say that our province has enormous potential in tourism for both the African as well as European markets due to its natural and cultural offers and that is why our future co-operation should concentrate on these issues.

I am ware that one of you is a 2010 specialist and will assist us in further positioning ourselves for the big game. Our exchange trips of some of our people to see your European Union Confederation Cup will greatly assist us. Our airport is presently receiving a facelift to the tune of R100 million facelift as part of the upgrading of the country's infrastructure to prepare it for the hosting of the FIFA 2010 soccer world cup. Therefore your visit came at the right time when we are preaching a concept of Vukuzenzele, meaning wake up and do it yourself.

We are saying to our people, most of who possess sterling skills in handcraft, passed from generations to generations, let us stand up and be counted. That clarion call has resulted in the craft markets that I am sure you were able to see as you go on a fact finding tour. That call has also touched our rural communities who see that their natural surroundings can be used as tourist attractions. Their homes have been turned into home stays, a step towards them being graded as bed and breakfast facilities.

You will recall that at the media briefing this morning I mentioned that we have already have in existence a tourism project running in numerous places, notably in Kwam eMakana and Kwam Embizana, which is a home stay guest house programme. Recently one of these places was able to house both the national and provincial parliament. What is of concern though is that very little information is known about the informal accommodation sector because there are no published statistics for analysis and interpretation. I have no doubt that your expertise in tourism and hospitality will also filter down to these programmes.

A few years ago we formed a partnership with EISS hospitality school in Port Alfred with the intention to train the home stay owners. However we need a school of tourism that can identify the tourism niches so that students that come out of the education system will not saturate the labour market, but can start their own tourism related work, such as being guides etc.

We would like our tourist sites even if situated in the townships to have state of the art technology. It is surprising that so few foreign tourists stay on farms and rural areas in South Africa compared to some overseas countries where at least 50% of the visitors will stay on a farm during their visit. South African farms and rural areas offer the greatest diversity of nature-based experiences of any farms in the world e.g. game viewing, hunting, art, history and culture.

In our past Tourism Indabas or conferences research has indicated that of urgent attention in the tourism sector are the following:

*tourism training and skills development
*tourism education and awareness
*community based tourism development
*tourism information network and technology
*market research
*public-private-partnerships
*joint venture programmes

While working on these issues, we think there is a need to reinforce and improve the teaching of tourism subjects including eco-tourism with emphasis on the expansion of national parks and nature reserves, cultural tourism, agri-tourism, special events and conference tourism as part of the National Curriculum Statement to prepare our school leavers to have an option to start their tourism
related Small and Medium and Micro Enterprises (SMMEs)

However, one critical area of assistance you can give us is in the issue of relevancy and quality in our tourism curriculum. In May 2007 research indicated that the Eastern Cape had 600 tourism/hospitality qualified but unemployed graduates. By any standard that is a very high number at a time when we critically want to market our country for 2010.

Help us strengthen the research that will yield market employable graduates. The curriculum should be formulated on the basis that a joint industry collaborative approach is central to the development of tourism in the province. Secondly an exchange of academic and student cadre to learn best practice from IMC University in Krems is important and could form part of the agreement moving forward.

As you continue to traverse the beautiful province I invite you to see how you can advice us to do better so that the Eastern Cape increase its share of foreign exchange earnings in the international tourism market. I want to quote the White Paper on Development and Promotion of Tourism in South Africa which says, "for us tourism is not a luxury but an essential part of our growing economy." Let us move forward with speed.

I thank you.

Issued by: Office of the Premier, Eastern Cape Provincial Government
21 January 2008