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AFSAE: LESSONS FROM SITE AFRICA
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SITE AFRICA
HOSTS TOURISM MASTERPLAN WORKSHOP SITE Africa recently unpacked essential keys for growing the tourism industry in a recent workshop in Cape Town. Musawenkosi Gebuza reports.
T
he Tourism Master Plan Workshop took place at Pigalle Restaurant in Cape Town on 28 January 2020. The workshop was aimed at assisting the tourism industry as a whole, as well as other institutions to target national and foreign investors for the development of the tourism sector. Dean Allen, Author, Historian and Lecturer at the University of South Africa; Ilse van Schalkwyk, Chief Director of the Economic Sector Support at Western Cape Government; and Amanda KotzeNhlapo, the Chief Convention Bureau Officer at the South Africa National Convention Bureau; were the speakers
at the workshop. Here’s a look at the highlights from the afternoon session.
Prioritise Investment Although South Africa already has the competitive advantage of well-developed infrastructure, with the recently set goal to attract 21 million tourists to South Africa by 2030 there is room for capacity expansion to support higher and greater volume of tourists. Investment is required to build more visitor accommodations, increase airport capacities and expansion in the public transportation sector as well as investment towards new products.
Ilse Van Schalkwyk said: “Greater budgetary support for tourism agencies is required and measures should be introduced to protect their budgets from the negative impact of currency fluctuations given their impact on marketing in foreign destination.” “It is also important to implement focused and flexible industrial and trade policy to promote competitiveness and facilitate growth in the long run,” she added.
Relationships and Partnerships The underlying momentum to partner, or the key motivator to co-operate, is that
