225 000 tourism sector jobs by 2020

Cape Town – The South African tourism sector, with growth of 6.6% in 2014 exceeding the global average, was on track with its goal of creating 225 000 jobs, Minister of Tourism Derek Hanekom said during his Budget Vote speech in Parliament on Thursday.

“With this level of growth, we will be well on track to achieve the National Development Plan’s target of creating 225,000 jobs within the sector by 2020,” said Hanekom.

Hanekom said investing in human capital was critically important and as such, the department would continue investing in training and development.

“Our current investment in training food safety officers, chefs, and sommeliers is already paying dividends in creating employment opportunities for our youth and improving the quality of our service to tourists,” he said.

Training also fell under the department’s Expanded Public Works programme and Social Responsibility Initiative (SRI) projects wherein the creation of 11 000 “full-time equivalent jobs” would be supported.

SRI projects would also see the continuation of programmes targeting women and youth such as the National Young Chefs programme, the Sommeliers programme, and the Tourism Buddies programme. Approximately 3,800 youth were enrolled as Tourism Buddies in 2014/15, a youth-empowerment programme providing on-the-job training.

“These placements will continue in 2015/16. An additional 300 young people will be trained for the Diploma in Cookery, and a further 200 youths will be trained for the Advanced Diploma in Cookery,” said Hanekom.

Further training and skills development would be provided to 100 rural tourism businesses through the Tourism Enterprise Partnership, for which the Department would contribute R13.5 million.

“Growing the number of enterprises is essential for sustainable development and job creation,” said Hanekom.

“Every single job we create has the potential to change someone’s life, to support a family, and build a future.”

Hanekom said additional “ambitious targets” set by the department included attracting 12 million international tourist arrivals by 2018 and increasing domestic holiday trips from 2.8 million in 2014 to 4.1 million by 2020.

The budget allocated to the Department for 2015/16 was R1.8 billion, 54% of which Hanekom announced would go to South African Tourism to grow domestic tourism.

Hanekom added that a panel, chaired by former Minister of Environment and Tourism Valli Moosa, would review the work of SA Tourism to increase innovation.

The Minister also discussed an aspect of the Tourism Incentive Programme (TIP) – a new retrofitting programme which would, in part, focus on energy efficiency thus reducing operational costs within the sector.

“We will pilot the installation of photo-voltaic panels at some of our state-owned attractions this year, such as our World Heritage Sites and National Botanical Gardens,” he said.

R180 million would be spent on the pilot phase of the programme with an additional R368 million budgeted to extend and subsidise the private tourism sector in the following years. In time, the programme would also see the expansion of disability-friendly establishments and attractions.

In addition to this, TIP aimed at improving business and management skills of community-based owners within the sector who would also be able to apply for financial assistance to access new markets and subsidies for some of the costs of grading by the Grading Council of South Africa.

“This will particularly benefit SMMEs operating on low margins who may otherwise struggle to cover the assessment fees to get themselves graded,” said Hanekom.

The Minister discussed collaborations with tertiary institutions to bolster transformation in the sector, investments in some of the country’s key tourism sites to increase the sector’s competitiveness, and called on all three spheres of government and the various tourism agencies to work together to develop the sector.

“Tourism in our country is growing stronger every year. The benefits of tourism are enormous, for our people, our communities, and our economy,” said Hanekom.

“We are determined to maintain this growth. And we are committed to making tourism more inclusive and sustainable.”

ANA