Speech by Marthinus Van Schalkwyk, Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism at the annual Tourism conference, Sandton Convention Centre

Aviation is the key to tourism growth

Introduction

Our arrival statistics of the past year amplifies the fact that we have ignited the South African brand and we are using it to set alight the possibilities. From China to Paris, from New York to Nairobi the word is out, South Africa is the place where everything is possible, and all people are welcome.

I therefore believe the three crucial outcomes of this conference focusing on aviation and tourism should be on how do we make it possible to get more tourists, more spend per tourist and a better spread of tourism across our provinces.

Tourism growth and air markets

Our tourism growth strategy, spanning three years from 2008 to 2010 has identified key markets for South Africa. This has been achieved by in depth research and we now know which markets are mature, ready to explore South Africa and which are developing markets ready to be tapped. Our key to growth in the tourism industry is aviation.

We have nine core air markets that we have identified that account for 55% of all arrivals of international tourists in South Africa. They are Australia, France, Germany, India, Kenya, Nigeria, Netherlands, United Kingdom and the United States of America. What is interesting is that they spend 61% of the foreign spend in our country.

Last year we welcomed more than 8,3 million tourists to our country. We however have enormous potential to grow our industry as there are over 76 million tourists that have been identified as our potential market. What makes this number very significant is that the 76 million tourists identified are just from the nine core air markets. A whole other world out there is also waiting to visit South Africa. When we delve further into the statistics we see that 27,6% of all tourists arrive by air. This represents 2,3 million tourists in total brought to our shores by our partners in aviation. These facts speak for themselves and they are the rationale for focusing on partnering with the aviation industry.

We believe that tourists from air markets could double if we have more flights, the right packaging, the right connectivity, competitive pricing and the right partnership with the aviation industry.

Airlift challenges

Thus far, the implementation of the airlift strategy, the result of a strong partnership between our department, South African Tourism, the Department of Transport and the private sector, has shown impressive increases in capacity to bring tourists to South Africa. Between September 2006 and January this year, rights for almost 1,4 million additional seats per year were secured on the network. I know that Minister Jeff Radebe will talk more about this initiative.

There is no doubt that the competition that has been created with more flights to our country, coupled with the introduction of low cost, no frills carriers internally has resulted in South Africa becoming more competitive. Despite the great strides we have made, we need to further advance our competitiveness if we want to close the price gap. As an example I would like to mention that you can fly from London to Sydney, a 23 hour flight for 40% less that you can fly 11 hours from London to Johannesburg. We understand that the markets are different and the volumes of passengers might be different, but we believe the potential tourist does not see it this way.

Our potential market knows how to look for value for money and we have got to make sure that we provide it. And this requires a stronger alliance between the tourism and aviation sectors.

In growing our destination we need to enhance the way we package South Africa with other African countries. Our internal connectivity also needs to be focused on ways to utilise the total range of our airports. This will result in us being able to move tourists from the more obvious destinations into the hinterland of South Africa and create a totally new holiday experience for them in the process.

The massive development going on at our airports must be welcomed as this will increase capacity and ensure better service to our tourists.

Job creation

Tourism's total contribution to job creation by 2006 amounted to 947 530 jobs. This was an increase of 9,6% over 2005.

This is the reason why the tourism industry has been given such high priority in terms of Acceleration Shared Growth for Africa's Development (AsgiSA) plan to reduce poverty and unemployment, and to raise the level of economic growth. Tourism's estimated contribution to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) increased from 4,6% in 1993 to 8,3% in 2006. However, we are ambitious and would like to see the GDP contribution of tourism rise to 12% by 2014. We are confident that we can build on the achievements of a solid partnership between government, the statutory bodies and the tourism industry.

Jobs and business opportunities created in tourism have special significance for economies such as ours. They help to spread opportunities beyond our major metropolitan areas to rural areas. They create incentives, not only to remain in rural areas, but also to develop, take pride in, and showcase local hospitality and culture.

For every 12 international tourists who visit our country, we create one job in our country. And our goal is to get this down to eight tourists creating one job.

Conclusion

These goals are not going to be achieved in isolation. It is going to take realistic partnerships, effective collaboration, significant innovation and a spirit of total co-operation. In essence what this conference is all about.

In preparing for this conference we are focusing on four commissions today, these are:

* the role of carriers in growing the tourism markets
* inter-modal transport and infrastructure
* safety and security at airports
* knowledge generation and management.

Ladies and gentlemen, we have over 400 people in this room drawn from a diverse range of activities and with a diverse knowledge and experience base. We need your thinking today. We need to hear your opinions.

Through better understanding, we can all make better decisions, and ultimately we need to align our thinking into a common framework, a common purpose and a common vision.

I would like to thank you for committing to this conference and seeing the partnership between tourism and aviation as a top priority.

Ladies and gentlemen, enjoy the day and once again welcome to our annual national tourism conference.

Enquiries:
Riaan Aucamp
Cell: 083 778 9923

Issued by: Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism
29 October 2007