Hon House Chair, Minister of Tourism, hon Mmamoloko Kubayi-Ngubane, Members of Parliament, director-general, members of the SAT Board, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen; I receive with great humility the
opportunity to address this august assemblage on the occasion of the debate on the Budget and Policy Statement of the Department of Tourism. It is more humbling to stand on this podium at the time when our country is celebrating its 25th anniversary of democracy and freedom. This is an opportune moment which reflects that we embrace the thoughts of former President of Tanzania Julius Nyerere that "if a door is shut, attempts should be made to open it; if it is ajar, it should be pushed until it is wide open".
We have opened our country's door to democracy to realise the strategic objective that the late ANC President Oliver Tambo set for all of us when he instructed all and sundry that, "It is our responsibility to break down barriers of division and create a country where there will be neither Whites nor Blacks, just South Africans, free and united in diversity".
Mahatma Gandhi said, "A nation's culture resides in the hearts and in the soul of its people". As a nation, our collective history, culture and heritage define us as a people and we need to cherish this because it position us as one of the most
attractive destination in the world due to our diversity. If we are to attain economic objectives of a better life for all, we ought to cherish our history, culture and heritage.
Our efforts continue to bear fruits which have resulted in the steady growth of tourism since the adventure of our hard fought democracy. We must continue to build up on our success to ensure that tourism becomes a significant player in employment creation, inclusive growth and development.
We must ensure that tourism work for the people of South Africa, gives full meaning to the thoughts that Frantz Fanon when he said that, "If the building of a bridge does not enrich the awareness of those who work for it, then the bridge ought not to be built". So, tourism must work for our people through employment creation, inclusive economic growth and development.
Through this Budget, we share with you highlights of our readiness to reposition the destination and the brand, borne of the collective commitment to grow tourism sector and carry the
aspiration of millions of South Africans through a path of growth, recovery and prosperity.
As a service sector, our customers buy experiences therefore; driving excellence must be our habit. Our nation spearheaded by our government need to make a concerted effort to continuous increase the level of hospitality and friendliness and the general standards of service.
We will continue to champion our programmes aimed at creating a culture of service excellence in order to ensure that services are delivered to the satisfaction of tourists.
We have a responsibility to advance and protect the objectives of responsible citizen. Our country has demonstrated our appreciation of the importance of responsible tourism by bringing our country first in 1996, to include responsible tourism in the 1996 White Paper on the Development and Promotion of Tourism in South Africa which addresses the need to implement energy efficiency programme in order to prepare our sector and our communities to deal with the effects of climate change.
Tourism cannot be use as a tool to destruct society but it is a perfect instrument for sustainable development, social cohesion and human development.
We are the first ones to acknowledge that even though tourism is about human experiences, economic thrive and development, it must be cornerstone of the people. Ours is a business about and is for people and is for this reason that we will continue to recognise and encourage the pursuit of excellence in the conduct of our business.
To advance this ideal pursuance of excellence, we are putting efforts to revolutionise our Service Excellence Awards and the creation of an industry- wide staff service excellence recognition system to achieve our objective.
We will continue to put more efforts in ensuring that Tourism Visitor Information ecosystem functions effectively and efficiently, this we shall do working together with our industry associations and bodies.
Our efforts for excellence have resulted in the establishment of our quality assurance scheme through the Star Grading System for accommodation, meetings, exhibitions and special events. This system has realised our objectives of reducing the cost burden on small tourism enterprises and encourage greater conformity to quality standard in tourism.
Since integrating the programme with the online application process in January 2018, 1 529 accommodations and meeting establishments applied for and benefited from 80% to 90% discount on their grading assessment fees. The department is confident that this number will grow.
The existent of vibrant small business entrepreneur and skilled work force is vital for sustainable tourism development. Not much will be realised without an investment in the development of appropriate skills in the tourism industry.
As part of our Expanded Public Works Programme, we have implemented niche skills development initiatives targeting youth and we are proud that our investment continues to bear fruit.
We have prioritised youth development and the department is now effectively implementing eight youth skills development programme nationwide, leaving a dent on the scourge of unemployment and consequential social strife. Some of this programme are your National Youth Chefs Training Programme - is now at its third year. A total of 1 867 have benefited from this programme. [Applause.]
The international placement elements of the programme exposes South African youth to culinary skills in French, Portuguese, Italian cuisine and others, has over the last two years successful placed 600 hundred students.
The other programme is your Wine Service Training Programme - is a three- year training programme and 300 unemployed youth people from Western Cape, KwaZulu-Natal, Northern Cape and Gauteng have enrolled.
The other programme is your Tourism Blue Flag Beach Stewards. The training programme is aimed at improving tourism facilities and services offered at 50 Blue Flag beaches across KwaZulu-
Natal, Western Cape and Eastern Cape. Three hundred learners have enrolled as a beach stewards. An addition of 25 beaches will be added to the fifty in the next three years
This programme will not be successful without the participation of industry, our hotels, B&Bs, restaurants and guest houses and our NGOs and social enterprises who continue to welcome our youth to get practical training.
The next one is your National Tourism Careers Expo, NTCE. This year, we will once again hold this expo in Mafikeng from 19 to 21 September 2019, in a partnership with the Culture, Art, Tourism, Hospitality, and Sports Sector Education and Training Authority, CATHSSETA.
The NTCE is the biggest excursion targeting educators, high school learners, Tvet colleges, university students and unemployed graduates, with the sole aim of promoting tourism as a career choice and as a platform for the diverse sub-sectors in the tourism industry to promote themselves as employers of choice.
Last year's expo attracted 6 678 young people and 303 educators and our target this year is to reach 10 000 youth and 500 educators directly.
We do this programme because we know that it is only through awareness, education, persuasion and enticement that we can bring back our youth from streets of hopelessness to make them pioneers in building and growing South Africa together.
We are investing in the skills of young people, our women and importantly those in the employ of the state because it is only through the acquisition of relevant skills that we can have a state that is as capable to deliver on its developmental mandate.
South Africa continues to claim share as a global competitor destination for variety of small, medium and mega events - be its business, sports and lifestyle.
The hosting of major events continues to be an effective tool to promote position and brand our country as destination of choice.
The SA Tourism serves to market the country as a tourism destination of choice as well as the world class business events destination and will continue promoting Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Exhibition through the National Conventions Bureau as well as quality assurance through the Tourism Grading Council of South Africa.
We need to consolidate and tap to the energy and innovation of our people and make them partners in driving the culture of travel and contributing to the products offering a domestic trip.
We will in this financial year launch and implement a national tourism events strategy and plan, anchored by a number of catalytic initiatives support successful bidding and hosting of local, provincial and national events outside the traditional meetings and conferences.
This strategy will complement the work that has been done by the Department of Sports, Arts and Culture, our provincial tourism authorities and municipalities in supporting vibrant and viable
leisure, lifestyle, food, music, cultural, films, conference and events, which are driving domestic tourism and promoting social cohesion.
To enhance community-based tourism, the department launched a programme to promote creation of inclusive tourist destination aimed at bringing community-based tourism in the bigger pot of enhancement of visitor experience.
In the previous year, the department concluded feasibility study for community based tourism in the following sites, Phuthaditjaba and Free State, Pilannesburg to Madikwe Corridor in North West, Vilakazi Street precinct in Soweto, Gauteng, Khula Village outside St Lucia in KwaZulu- Natal and eMazizini in the Northern Drakensberg in KwaZulu-Natal.
We must live to our infamous claim that tourism is everybody's business. The millions of South Africans must be owners, consumers and beneficiaries of their country's tourism success story - after all, that's what domestic tourism should be all about.
We can only do that if we inculcate and harness a culture of travel in our people, so that they feel, see and touch the benefits of tourism in their country.
We shall continue to engage the public and the private sectors, sports and religious bodies, social clubs, stokvels to come ride with us as we continue to instil a culture of exploring our country.
The opportunity provided by our six bordering countries should be fully exploited as well by those of our communities staying at and around the border towns.
Our success will be measured on how we best we offer tourist products, the most pristine destination and priceless experience both locally and internationally.
We have characterised the new dawn as an era of doing things differently. We will toil vigorously and laboriously to intensify domestic tourism, particularly among the rural and the working people of our country. Our aim is to demystify this
notion that tourism is an elitist activity and therefore is aimed at certain section of society.
We want to conclude by saying it is a moment like this when we revisit our thoughts from Kwame Nkrumah when he said: "Those who would judge us merely by the heights we have achieved would do well to remember the depths from which we started". Thank you very much. [Applause.]