THIS TOURISM WEEK Number 36 – Monday, 15 May 2006
This Tourism Week – 2006: The Airlift Indaba
THIS TOURISM WEEK Number 36 – Monday, 15 May 2006
2006: The Airlift Indaba
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And, just so’s you know – I’m PROUDLY BAREFOOT AND FULLY SOUTH AFRICAN
SOUTH AFRICAN TOURISM branded it the ‘Gold Standard Travel Show,’ and this year’s Tourism Indaba certainly was – as always – an impressive event. According to stats just in, 11,133 people participated in Indaba 2006 – with visitor numbers growing 3.8% to 3,757 and exhibiting businesses increasing by 6.4% to 1,682.
The excitement was palpable from the start and the one thing everyone was talking about was ‘The Airlift.’ Because the size of the airlift – the ability to bring in long-haul passengers – is the key to unlocking the potential of our tourism industry.
… Well, everyone was talking about the airlift except the officials: they were talking about ‘The Statistics’ – the number of people who’ve already arrived.
Which is why it seemed to me that perhaps the Indaba existed in two parallel universes.
In the first were the business on the ground whose representatives were saying that their visitor numbers haven’t grown in proportion to what Stats SA says is the increase in arrivals. And in the other were the officials, congratulating themselves – and, yes, the industry – on achieving and surpassing (by 300,000) their stated target of 7 million visitors by 2005 (against 6.7 million in 2004 and off a base of about 1 million ten years before).
You have to wonder who those seven million visitors are. And where they’re spending their money.
The two things I enjoyed most at this year’s Indaba were the grand opening (and it certainly was grand) and the presentation by the Tourism Grading Council on their Universal Access Grading Scheme (but more about that next week).
At the opening we were bombarded by a magnificent multi-media extravaganza that stirred the blood and made us moer-of-a proud to be South Africans. And then we were treated (and it was a treat) to an opening speech by the Deputy President, Ms Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka.
“Word is she’s going to make an important announcement,” said one of the reporters sitting near to me in the media section of the auditorium.
“Bet it’s the air-lift,” said another.
“While our tourism has outperformed all of our sectors of the economy,” said the Deputy President, “it is not yet saturated and therein lies our fortune.” She said that tourism effectively reaches only 3 of the nine provinces and that every increase in tourist arrivals means an increase in job opportunities.
“It is for these reasons that in our Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative for South Africa (ASGI-SA), we have identified tourism as one of our priority and key sectors that will contribute to our target of 6% GDP growth by 2010.”
Ms Mlambo-Ngcuka said that government is aware of the importance of creating an enabling environment for the industry “such as political stability and security, reliable and modern infrastructure” and “an efficient and reliable visa strategy” (and here she did make a significant announcement: “we are working towards a SADC uni-visa that will facilitate travel in all of the SADC countries).”
She went on to talk about the importance of customer care – a problem which she said would be overcome through ASGI-SA’s focus on skills development. “Our desire is to fast-track thousands of trainees within the next two years. Your contribution in the form of intake for work experience and employment is most needed. To follow up on this, please contact the department of tourism.”
And she spoke about the World Cup (of course).
But in her entire speech she made only one allusion to the airlift: “we are also working on an airlift strategy that will increase air slots in line with demand.”
In his speech, Tourism Minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk announced that Indaba had been awarded to Durban for the next three years (a good thing, too – it should stay in Durban. For dozens of reasons). And he went on to thank “all the stakeholders” for helping to bring 7.3 million international visitors to South Africa in 2005.
But he didn’t say where these visitors came from, nor where they went to after they’d crossed our borders. And he didn’t say anything about the airlift.
But I kept hearing it – from the operators, from the product owners, from colleagues in the media. “The airlift. The airlift.”
I went to SAA’s Tourism Awards Breakfast and to the press conference afterwards. Nothing about the airlift there (but why would there be? It’s not in SAA’s interest to open the skies, is it?).
And I went to South African Tourism’s Media Face-Off – where Moeketsi Mosola of SA Tourism, Helder Pereira of Southern Suns, the police’s Bala Naidoo and the Directors General of the DTI, of Foreign Affairs and of the Department of Environment Affairs and Tourism tried (unsuccessfully, I think) to answer questions about safety and security, the future of tourism and – you guessed it – the airlift.
But none of them could tell us anything about the programme for the opening of our skies and for me the most interesting comment of that presentation came from an Indian journalist who reminded the panel that India’s tourism success had something to do with the fact that its government had opened their skies – without selling off their national carrier.
And so I came away from Indaba 2006 wondering, once again, which comes first: marketing or development. Whether, under the circumstances anybody really can – or wants to – solve the problem of how we’re going to get those long-haul passengers here. And whether we can rely on the statistics – especially if we can’t allow ourselves to differentiate between the long haul passengers (as the people who can be expected to spend their money at the properties which exhibit at the Indaba – including the properties in those 6 under-fed provinces) and those people from neighbouring countries who come to South Africa on business.
… Have a Great Tourism Week!
MARTIN HATCHUEL – 15 May 2006
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