Chairperson, I would like to respond to five issues, but before I do that, I would like to thank all members for their excellent contributions. We heard a number of maiden speeches today. Congratulations to all those members. It is always a special moment in this House when a member delivers his or her maiden speech. Over the years, in this House, we changed chairman to chairperson and chairwoman to chairperson, but I think it is still permissible to say maiden speech. So, maybe somebody can think of a new term.
The five issues that I would like to respond to, Chairperson, is: the issue of product offerings - the hon member Tshabalala-Msimang raised that issue; the issue of airlift; and the issue of markets. Where do these 9,5 million people who visit us every year come from and how are we going to increase that to the 10 million that we want next year? Fourthly, also the issue that the hon member Shinn raised on the other side, which is the issue of beyond 2010; and then, lastly, the issue of co-operation amongst different levels of government.
On the issue of our product offering, I can confirm that it is a huge challenge, because for decades we basically relied on leisure tourism. What we need to do now is to make sure that we diversify, and that we bring credible, attractive new products on the market. One of those is the challenge of heritage tourism, and we think it has a lot of potential to convince many more people to come and visit this country. A challenge remains for us to push South Africa up on the list of destinations for convention or conference tourism. We believe where we are now we are lagging at about number 27 or 28 globally. We want South Africa to be one of the top 10 convention tourism destinations. We believe it is possible, and we are going to work extremely hard to achieve this objective.
On the issue of airlift and arrivals, I can say that Cabinet adopted an airlift strategy two or three years ago, and that has changed the landscape in this country. Many more airlines announced that they are now flying to South Africa; others increased the number of flights to South Africa and, obviously, back to their own home destinations. Just during the last year, we saw quite a substantial increase in flights from the United Kingdom, from France, from Brazil, from India, and, obviously, also from Dubai and the United Arab Emirates. We would like to continue that trend.
Let us talk for a second about the South African Airways, SAA. It is not my direct responsibility; it is the responsibility of Minister Hogan, the Minister of Public Enterprises. The signal from that Cabinet decision to the tourism industry, but also to South African Airways, was a very unambiguous, clear signal: The days of overprotecting South African Airways is over. [Applause.] How SAA adapt to that situation will determine how they are going to survive in these new circumstances. They will have to be much more competitive, and from our side the message to them is that we want to work with them. We think there should be much better alignment between our agency, South African Tourism, and South African Airways. The message is also that our interest is to have as many tourists here as possible. So, if we need to work with other airlines, we are going to do that. Therefore, our message to SAA is: Be competitive. We want to work with you, but there are other players as well. We obviously trust and hope that they will adapt to the situation.
Now, where do these 9,5 million tourists come from? Over 7 million of them come from Africa. The perception about Africa is changing. People in Africa have money to travel. The air markets in Africa alone, in other words the yield, arising from increasing numbers of tourists to South Africa year on year, was just over 19% last year. That does not represent land travel. Those are our air markets alone. So, that is good news for South Africa as destination. We must understand that our traditional markets are very valuable. These are really our bread-and-butter markets - Europe and the United States of America - and we will continue to market there.
Apart from Africa, there are many new markets that we are now branching into: India, China, and then also Japan. We also increased the number of flights from Japan to seven flights per week. From India, we are seeing good growth; and also from China, but it is from a very low base, because that is really a difficult market to crack. India and China, specifically, will become high-priority markets for us over the next few years.
Then, on the issue of beyond 2010, the hon member Shinn is correct as 2010 is a wonderful opportunity, but it can never be an end in itself. There is life after 2010, and I would like to convey to the hon member and to this House that, even now, we are planning for beyond 2010. We are looking at attracting other events to South Africa, for example sporting, cultural and convention events but we are also looking at our marketing, in general, to attract new markets, because we know that after 2010 we will not be able to afford a sudden slump in the arrival numbers in South Africa. We have this entire infrastructure; we need to be able to use it. We are a developing country, and we cannot allow something similar to happen here as in the case of a country such as Korea where, after their World Cup in 2002, they had to start demolishing infrastructure and stadiums. We simply cannot do it. So, we agree with your insight in that regard.
Then the last issue is the issue of co-operation between the levels of government. We need to be very open about this issue. We need a much more co-ordinated approach to market South Africa as a country, and we have started the process of brand alignment to get all the major cities and the provinces on board so that we can market South Africa as a destination. What are undermining our efforts are all these municipalities and provinces going overseas and marketing themselves. People in other parts of the world simply don't know. It is nothing against Swellendam or Mangaung, but if you go to those exhibitions and say come to Mangaung or Swellendam, it simply doesn't cut it. We have to market South Africa as a destination and then decide how we are going to increase our competition inside the country with our own internal marketing. So, I hope that I can look forward to members on the other side of the aisle making sure that the Western Cape and Cape Town also understand that message, so that all of us, in the interest of the country, to work towards the same goal and the same objective that will benefit all of us. Chairperson, thank you very much. [Applause.]
Debate concluded.