Parliament, Tuesday, 1 September 2020 – The Portfolio Committee on Tourism held a meeting today to consider the Report on Transformation of the Tourism Sector in South Africa.
This is the culmination of the committee’s own initiative to track transformation in the tourism sector in South Africa. At the beginning of its tenure, the 6th Parliament Portfolio Committee on Tourism realised that the pace of transformation in the tourism sector was too pedestrian. It was realised that tourism development is, to a great extent, confined to the Johannesburg-Durban-Cape Town Golden Triangle, with pockets of excellence is selected areas in other provinces. This prompted the committee to adopt an oversight approach that seeks to promote tourism development in villages, townships and small dorpies (VTSDs).
As part of this approach, the committee made an undertaking that the committee will track transformation in the tourism sector and report to South Africans annually in September. The report compiled and presented by the committee’s support staff today was the first in the committee’s implementation of its resolutions to apprise the citizens. The purpose of this report is to provide tourism stakeholders with an overview of the strides made by the Portfolio Committee on Tourism thus far in an attempt to entrench transformation in the tourism sector; highlight the proposals for transformation of the tourism sector as suggested by South Africans; and suggest recommendations that may be advanced with the Minister of Tourism on enhancing transformation programmes in South Africa.
The report will be tabled in the National Assembly as it has implications for other Portfolio Committees that play a critical role in the tourism sector. The report will be made public once adopted by the National Assembly. The committee made a call for submissions from citizens to make proposals on how the tourism sector could be transformed.
The submissions received from South Africans included issues of training, entrepreneurial development and the role of the youth; product development; access and maintenance of tourist attractions; Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment; opposition to state intervention in tourism transformation; embracing information technology (Fourth Industrial Revolution); creating a sustainable tourism future in response to the Covid-19 pandemic; and tourism education.
The committee would like to send a word of gratitude to all the organisations and individual citizens who heeded the call to make submissions on proposals for transformation, said the Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Tourism, Mr Supra Mahumapelo.
ISSUED BY THE PARLIAMENTARY COMMUNICATION SERVICES ON BEHALF OF THE CHAIRPERSON OF THE PORTFOLIO COMMITTEE ON TOURISM, MR SUPRA MAHUMAPELO.
For media enquiries or interviews with the Chairpersons, please contact the Committee’s Media Officer:
Name: Sureshinee Govender
Parliamentary Communication Services
Tel: 021 403 2239
Cell: 081 704 1109
E-mail: sugovender@parliament.gov.za
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