URL: http://www.engineeringnews.co.za
Policy, Law, Economics and Politics - Deepening Democracy through Access to Information This privately-owned website is operated and maintained by Creamer Media
   
Polity
Published: 23 Feb 2010
SA: Van Schalkwyk: Speech by the Minister of Tourism at the opening of the T20 tourism ministers meeting, Johannesburg (23/02/2010)

Date: 23/02/2010
Source: Department of Tourism
Title: SA: Van Schalkwyk: Speech by the Minister of Tourism at the opening of the T20 tourism ministers meeting, Johannesburg

Dear colleagues, invited guests and media

I am honoured to welcome you to this first T.20 meeting for tourism
ministers from the worlds major economies.

This meeting is a major step towards enhancing tourisms central position as
a driver of economic, social and environmental development.

Under the overarching theme of Travel and tourism: stimulus for the global
economy, the agenda for this meeting has been designed to respond to very
real global challenges. The primary aim is to explore the synergies between
strengthened global economic cooperation, and the tourism sectors efforts to
build resilience, and stimulate new sources of sustainable, responsible and
inclusive growth.

In particular, I would like to welcome my ministerial colleagues and other
senior officials from the T.20 countries. Thank you for joining us for this
important first meeting of the group, and for entrusting South Africa with
hosting and chairing this inaugural meeting. Also a special word of welcome
to Mr Taleb Rifai, Secretary-General of the United Nations World Tourism
Organisation (UNWTO), who, from the outset, has been an ardent supporter of
the T.20 member-driven initiative.

I also express my appreciation to the other international guests and experts
who have joined us for the meeting, including the New Partnership for
Africas Development (NEPAD), the United Nations Environment Programme
(UNEP), the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the
Pacific (UNESCAP), the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC), the
International Trade Centre (ITC) and the International Labour Organisation
(ILO). As intergovernmental organisations and experts with a direct interest
in the role of travel and tourism in reviving the global economy, your
contributions will be invaluable.

Chair, let us remind ourselves of the huge responsibility we have as tourism
ministers from the worlds major economies. Tourism representssome 5% of T.20
countries gross domestic product, and together, we account for almost 70% of
all international tourist arrivals and receipts generated in the world. We
also recognise that tourism provides 75 million direct jobs globally, and
contributes 30% of the worlds services exports, amounting to US$ 1 trillion
a year. For those of us in the developing world, the sector represents 45%
of our total services exports.

Against this background, I was encouraged by the common resolve to deepen
and broaden our cooperation expressed by tourism ministers when we met in
Kazakhstan in October last year. Given the key importance of tourism in
unlocking enhanced economic growth, infrastructure development, trade
promotion, poverty eradication and job creation, we agreed that tourism
could, and indeed should, be further mainstreamed in global economic
decision making. This meeting is a first step towards that objective.

Chair, let us for a moment take a step back, and ask why a coordinated
response is required.

We meet as the world starts to emerge from an unprecedented global economic
recession, which impacted on all economic sectors, including tourism.
Although the process of recovery is under way, it is still weak and uneven.
Preventing unemployment and a jobless recovery remain the key
challenges.Even though business and consumer confidence has picked up,
economic growth in major source markets, especially in Europe and America,
is still fragile.

Observing business news headlines in the last months of 2008 was like
watching an epic unfold intense plots of unprecedented power and wealth
turning into paralysing loss; the collapse of established and trusted
financial institutions; and shockwaves felt on stock markets across the
globe. We witnessed fear, anger, shame and intense panic not seen since the
Great Depression of the 1930s.

As the mirror of the worlds psyche in terms of consumer confidence,
throughout 2009 the tourism sector directly reflected the fragile state of
people across the globe. As news of the global economic crisis grew in
volume and impact in every corner of the world, travellers started to cancel
their business and leisure travel plans. Arrivals and receipts started to
drop, and employment, development and investment were soon to feel the
strain.

All of us gathered here today are painfully aware of the heavy toll this
crisis took on our respective tourism industries and their underlying
tourism economies. International tourist arrivals for business, leisure and
other purposes declined worldwide by some 4% to 880 million in 2009.

The losses have been staggering. Revenues lost cannot be recovered. Flights
cancelled cannot be reflown. Employment earnings lost cannot be repaid.
Development frozen cannot be easily accelerated.

Most importantly, fears seeded cannot simply be cast aside. Peoples what ifs
soon became what now.

However, through synchronised government interventions of unprecedented
scale, facilitated by the G20, the worlds interconnected economies were
pulled back from the brink of depression.
By the end of the third quarter of 2009, we hit rock bottom, and thankfully,
the only way out, was up. Recovery was said to be around the corner, and the
re-energising of our economies was under way. As confidence in this
expectation grew, travel bookings started to recover. By year-end, traveller
numbers and revenues were growing, and the red ink was turning black again.

Reflecting the International Monetary Funds forecasts for the global economy
this year, the UNWTO predicts growth in international tourist arrivals of
between 3% and 4% in 2010.

Despite the flexibility shown by the tourism sector in dealing with rapid
shifts in demand, and volatile market conditions, careful planning and
vision are required to stay one step ahead of other economic sectors.

Not one of us can afford to be complacent. The sun may not shine in the same
way as in the past. Therefore, we have a responsibility to ask ourselves:
What does it take to be a tourism leader in our brave new world?What do the
new consumers and the new market look like?

I have no doubt that honest reflection will reveal that the rules of the
game have changed. Oursector will operate in a more cost-conscious
environment; people will retire later; and tourists with less discretionary
spending will take trips closer to home, and will stay for shorter periods.
Globally, money to finance construction for public and private tourism
infrastructure will remain tight. Oil prices and travel costs will remain
unpredictable, as will peace and security. A jobless recovery could remain a
real threat.

I therefore believe that, in the context of the enhanced and much needed
international cooperation that emerged from the global economic crisis,
inter alia in the G20, tourism ministers are today presented with an
opportunity to speak and act in a much improved and coordinated manner on a
number of global issues.

As the global economic outlook moves from recession to green shoots to exit
strategies, we must ask how tourism can help to rebuild the global economy,
adapt existing tourism models to new challenges, accommodate both economic
and ecological imperatives, and balance competitiveness and unworthy
competition. We must ask how, together, we can build a sustainable and
resilient sector.
Chair, It is about more than recovery it is about transformation. We cannot
return to pre-crisis business-as-usual; we must work smarter, be flexible,
and work towards economy-wide convergence of a travel and tourism industry
that too often still operates in silos. We need to speak as one and be seen
to speak as one.

In South Africa, the risk management approach of balancing domestic,
regional and international tourism, as well as traditional and emerging
source markets, is bearing fruit in these tough times. Likewise, there is a
political determination to respond to the latest economic trends, to be
flexible in decision making, adjust to changing circumstances, seek new
opportunities, and stay focused on the long-term objectives of sustainable
economic development, human development and the creation of decent jobs.

Chairperson, we will be learning from each others experiences over the next
two days. Allow me to outline five opportunities and challenges that I
believe we face as tourism ministers in this T.20 group:

Firstly, we need to strengthen the analytical base that underpins the
economic and development case for travel and tourism. We need to improve the
way we articulate and communicate tourisms ability to create jobs and
address poverty.

Secondly, we need to intensify our collaboration to mainstream tourism on
the global agenda securing a rightful place for our sector, with the
ultimate aim of expanding the reach of the economic benefits of tourism to a
larger segment of the world population.

Thirdly, we must continue to examine those international economic frameworks
that have a significant impact on global tourism development, and in the
process mobilise a collective effort to respond in a coordinated way.
Fourthly, we must find new ways to facilitate easy movement of tourists
between countries, addressing unnecessary travel barriers, and fostering
mutual understanding and cooperation.

Finally, we should actively support the evolving programmes of the
international community, including the G2O, UNWTO, international and
intergovernmental bodies such as the ILO, and private sector organisations
such as the WTTC and the International Air Transport Association (IATA), to
stimulate the global economy, enhance employment, alleviate poverty, and
transform progressively into a green economy.

With these words I welcome you, and invite you to join me in a constructive
dialogue.