This Tourism Week. 2 July 2010

You Have To Read and Comment On The Draft National Tourism Sector Strategy

The most important news in tourism right now is that the Draft National Tourism Sector Strategy is open for comment.

It’s available for download here or here.

Thing is, it’s a troublesome document.

To begin, it’s based on the Tourism Satellite Account, which, in turn, is based on statistics from 2005.

Look at your balance sheet. Are you making the kind of profit you did in 2005?

I thought not.

And that’s where the trouble begins, right there at the start. Because on the second page of the introduction to the document, we read that “Tourism is one of the largest industries in the world, contributing almost 10% of the global GDP (9,6% in 2008) and accounting for more than 225 million jobs around the world. The global tourism industry has shown significant growth in the last 3 decades, and total international arrivals increased by an average of 4,4% per annum from about 278 million in 1980 to 922 million in 2008.

“The global economic crisis has, however, resulted in lower worldwide arrivals growth for 2008 (only 2%, compared to the 6% growth recorded in 2007). The first six months of 2008 saw 6% growth in arrivals compared to 2007, and a 1% decline in arrivals was recorded from July to December 2008 compared to 2007. During the first eight months of 2009, arrivals declined by approximately 7% compared to the same period in 2008. International passenger data from IATA and hotel performance data from STR Global indicate similar declines. Experts believe that the last few months of 2009 indicate that the worst may be over for the tourism industry, with declines in demand starting to moderate.

“At the start of the year, the World Tourism Organisation (“UNWTO”) panel of experts rated the prospects for tourism in 2009 at the lowest level ever, though their expectations have started to improve by the third quarter of 2009. It is expected that global arrivals will decline by between 4-6% in 2009 (forecast as at October 2009). The October 2009 UNWTO Tourism Barometer indicate an expected 1-3% growth in global tourism arrivals in 2010.”

… And here we are building a new tourism strategy on pre-recession figures?

Secondly, South African Tourism, quite reasonably enough, bases its work on the UNWTO’s generally accepted (if rather heavy handed) definition of tourists as people who “Travel to and stay in places outside their usual environment for more than twenty-four hours and not more than one consecutive year for leisure, business and other purposes not related to the exercise of an activity remunerated from within the place visited.”

I would suggest, though, that South Africa struggles to fit itself into this definition because travel in South Africa exists in two seriously different economies - one that caters for cross-border travel for reasons other than holidays, and one that caters for people who travel for holidays and business.

Anecdotal evidence would persuade me that the first group travels mostly to shop, to seek medical assistance, and, perhaps, for religious purposes.

Am I being racist? (I’ve had that curse thrown at me when I’ve written about this subject before.)

No.

“In 2008,” says the Document, “foreign visitors stayed on average 8.2 nights in South Africa, and spent on average R8,100 per trip in South Africa. Collectively the foreign visitors spent R74.2 billion in South Africa in 2008. African land visitors – who comprise the bulk of foreign visitors to South Africa, with 7.1 million arrivals - stayed on average for 4.9 nights and spent R6,200 in South Africa, while African visitors arriving by air (about 300,000 arrivals) stayed on average 18.8 nights and spent R14,900. Overseas visitors (2.1 million arrivals) stayed on average 16.8 nights and spent R14,200 in South Africa. Overall, the growth in arrivals in 2008 was 5.5% compared to 2007.

“On the domestic front, 32.9 million trips were undertaken by adult South Africans during 2008 – with an average trip cost of R780 and an average length of stay of 4.5 nights per trip. Domestic visitors collectively spent R25.8 billion in 2008, which is 8.4% less than in 2007.”

The Document’s Vision for South Africa’s tourism industry is defined as (where DO authors of mission statements get off on the language of Star Trek?) - “Boldly growing responsible tourism together to deliver memorable experiences for all our tourists and sustainable benefits for all South Africans.”

To boldly grow?

“Hotels reported declines in occupancy (-13.6%) and revenue per available room (-9.3%) during the first 9 months of 2009 compared to the same period in 2008. The average room rates increased by 5% during the same period, which is less than inflation and reflects a real decline.”

OK, so maybe the idea here is change things. And that’s a good thing.

“A six-pack of core objectives will steer the tourism industry towards its vision. These are:

  • “To grow the tourism sector’s absolute contribution to GDP by more than average GDP growth
  • “To achieve transformation within the tourism sector
  • “To provide excellent people development and decent work within the tourism sector
  • “To entrench a culture of travel amongst South Africans
  • “To deliver a world class visitor experience
  • “To address the issues of geographic, seasonal and rural spread.”

… But there’s nothing new in that. And I would argue that that’s because we’re still swimming in the same inelegant school of thinking that dictates that travel and hospitality must be lumped together.

They can’t. Travel for hospitality’s sake on the one hand (and this includes business travel and travel for pleasure), and travel for religious purposes, shopping, or medical help (or, even sheer survival - because you can’t get the basic services you need in your own home country) on the other, are very different animals - since the travelers involved make use of quite different sets of facilities.

In the middle of the Venn Diagramme, of course, fall common things like transport, foreign exchange, border posts, and so on. But can you put luxury hotels and conference venues in the same set as groceries wholesalers, supermarkets, churches, and hospitals?

If this National Draft Strategy is going to work - and I know we all sincerely hope it does - it could work even better if we finally, and without flinching (which is kind of a nice euphemism for ‘without being politically correct about it’) face up to the reality that is tourism in South Africa.

And the only way to do that is to finally recognise that travel belongs not to one, but to two broad churches.

Both of which deserve recognition, and both of whom need to be nurtured and grown.

But not necessarily in the same way.

Download the Draft National Tourism Sector Strategy here or here, and email your comments to strategy@tourism.gov.za no later than 31 July 2010.

For enquiries, call Lizzy Suping: 012 310 3310 or Ronel Bester: 021 465 7240.