INDABA 2007 – Open for business

Indaba, South African Tourism’s principle marketing platform, was officially opened in Durban on Saturday. Indaba is where the entire South African tourism industry come to pursue a common objective – to sell South Africa effectively in order to grow the industry and the economy.

The event was attended by a number of notaries, including the Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism,  Marthinus Van Schalkwyk, the CEO of South African Tourism, Moeketsi Mosola and the Premier of KwaZulu Natal, Sibusiso Ndebele.

In his keynote address, the Minister stated that “tourism has been recognised at the highest possible level for its significant impact on the economy”.  He continued by saying that there were two major challenges which the industry has to address as a matter of urgency. These are skills development and transformation of the industry.

On skills development, Van Schalkwyk explained that there is a lack of skilled managers from previously disadvantaged backgrounds and a lack of foreign language skills among operators and agents. A strategy for dealing with these challenges needs to be finalised – turning this strategy into action is the main focus over the next five years.

Moeketsi Mosola emphasised that South African Tourism had listened to and learnt from the trade and also announced that an Events Division would be operational later this year, with a mission to leverage global, national and regional events to drive numbers and spend.

Tourism is strongly viewed as a way to uplift communities, providing both a lifeline and mechanism for restoring dignity to peole’s lives. Safety and security also features highly, particularly in the lead-up to the World Cup in 2010.

The ceremony ended with the presentation of the 2007 Welcome Awards, recognising businesses that have excelled in terms of service excellence and innovative product delivery. Velile Ndlumbini, a freelance township tourism guide who specialises in tours of Mdantsane in the Eastern Cape took out the Grand Prix prize.  Gallivanter Tours 2000 won first prize in the tour operator’s category.

Durban itself aims to become the Singapore of South Africa with its new port facilities, and in 2006, Durban won the WTO Best Destination Management Organisation.

Sport, as in Australia pervades most things.  The exhibitor stands thinned out noticeably during the afternoon as the Sharks, the local Super 14 Rugby team played a match down the road. During the opening ceremony, the winning result was conveyed to the audience to a great cheer!

It is generally accepted that awareness of South Africa is quite high, however, conversion is still a challenge, due mainly to perceptions on safety and security.  Word-of-mouth is key to dispelling this perception and crime reduction will be maintained as a major priority going forward.

The goal for the South African tourism industry is to provide real value-for-money experiences and open up new niche areas such as heritage and adventure, and the collective will is certainly there to achieve it.

Report by The Mole