South Africa needed to be flexible in attaining its tourism goals for 2020 because international forecasts indicated slow growth in future, Tourism Minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk said.
“On a global scale, we should not expect the recovery to speed up too quickly. Forecasts indicate overall growth in international arrivals of between four and five percent for 2011,” he said in a speech prepared for delivery at a management conference in Cape Town.
“The forecasted growth figure for Africa is between four and seven percent for 2011, compared to two and four percent growth for Europe.
“I point to these realities not to discourage, but rather to challenge us to find new and improved ways to compete in the global marketplace. We must be flexible as we move towards achieving our 2020 vision.”
Last week, Van Schalkwyk launched the National Tourism Sector Strategy (NTSS), which contains long-term tourism goals for South Africa.
These include increasing the number of foreign tourist arrivals to 15 million by 2020.
“But this is not an end in itself,” said Van Schalkwyk. “What is important is to translate those arrivals into broader economic benefits to our people.”
The NTSS also stated that South Africa aimed to increase tourism's contribution to the gross domestic product from R190
billion in 2009 to R499bn in 2020.
“This cannot be jobless growth, and we are committed to creating 225,000 new job opportunities by 2020,” said Van Schalkwyk. - Sapa