Hon House Chair, we must acknowledge the efforts made by the Department of Tourism to bring multiple stakeholders together to craft a Tourist Safety and Security Strategy. We must also acknowledge the efforts made by President Cyril Ramaphosa to encourage and inspire confidence in our country.
We share that responsibility each one of us. Every South African has the responsibility to promote our nation in spite of our challenges. The challenges we face, such as high crime rates, unemployment and inequality should motivate us to pull together, because we have a shared future.
Challenges must not define us, it is our hope and belief in a South Africa for all that must inspire us to carry the flag of this nation in whatever capacity we may find ourselves in and here it is worth mentioning the #ImStaying that relays the inspirational stories of ordinary South Africans and their reasons that they will stay in this country.
Our collective efforts are needed to change the downward trajectory in international visitors coming to our country and domestic visitors to our respective provinces. In short, we must all see ourselves as brand ambassadors for our nation. We could regurgitate the statistics, we all know them. We are ranked amongst the most violent countries in the world, and being flagged by countries such as the United Kingdom, the United States of America and Australia among others as a dangerous country.
But, the loss of revenue as a result of these realities, what it means for all of us, is fewer visitors come, and this further results in job losses and even deeper levels of poverty.
We must apply our energies in finding and driving solutions to move upward on the growth curve. As people in public office, we should do most of the heavy lifting to improve the outlook of our nation, and once again attract the world to this nation, sitting at the tip of Africa.
They want to come, we must give them reasons to come to our nation and each and South African carries that responsibility. I thank you. [Applause.]