The first ever consultative tourism indaba for Mpumalanga has yielded great strategies. The indaba facilitated fruitful dialogue between the private sector, government departments and municipalities on a variety of pressing topics affecting tourism.
It was hosted by Kruger Lowveld Tourism, the tourism arm of Kruger Lowveld Chamber of Business and Tourism (KLCBT), and the provincial Department of Economic Development and Tourism.
MEC Pat Ngomane opened the conference on Thursday, highlighting the importance of tourism to the economy. He called it the “New Gold Mine” and called for a local government conference to deal with this specifically.
“Tourism is the only reliable and sustainable growth industry in recent years. That is why it should be cherished and nurtured.”
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Linda Grimbeek, COO of KLCBT, said a Mpumalanga Tourism Act will be formulated and implemented.
“This will ensure it is not just another Memorandum of Understanding, but something that has to be followed and implemented as part of the key performance areas for responsible officials. The local government conference as was called for by MEC Ngomane, was also agreed upon, and he pledged to have a date for this before the end of this week.”
Oupa Pilane, KLCBT president, proposed the formation of service delivery forums, where the private sector and municipalities meet about issues of service delivery and assist one another with challenges.
“Excellent service delivery will turn our small towns into little gems, which are so popular to city dwellers these days. If a town is attractive and desirable to visitors, it will certainly be great for the people who live there.”
He said the forums would minimise the debilitating service delivery protests which are a big stumbling block to the tourism industry.
“The public attractions are old and seemingly neglected in most places. They need to be modernised to world-class attractions that modern travellers seek. There are several hampering factors to achieve this, and it was suggested that Mpumalanga look to other provinces to see how they overcame some of those issues.”
Grimbeek said the effective development and implementation of the Tourism Act, and the local government conference, will deal with most of the issues effectively, “provided that we can achieve sufficient buy-in and focus by local government.
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“Effective cooperation is required to rule out corruption and make the area safer for tourists. Visible policing was called for; this should involve SAPS, traffic, security companies and possibly the tourism safety monitors,” she said.
Ngomane urged all the stakeholders to work together as a team.
“This is a Catholic marriage, there is no divorce,” he said, indicating the solid relationship cemented between government and private sector.
“We were generally pleased with the turnout from government; sadly some municipalities and SAPS did not turn up due to the last minute change in the programme, but most attended and the Department of Community Safety, Security and Liaison did have a senior representative in attendance.
“Even with a significantly shorter time frame than originally planned, the discussions covered the most critical issues of each topic and some very useful information and ideas were shared. It is amazing what can be achieved when government and private sector really take hands,” said Grimbeek.
