LTA on strategic workshop

Desmond Boshego

LIMPOPO – The Limpopo Tourism Agency (LTA) board held a strategic workshop at Zebula lodge in Bela Bela last Tuesday.

The purpose of the strategic session was to navigate the organisation towards the achievement of good governance, integrate and streamline tourism function in the province in line with the national tourism sector strategy and to ensure delivery of quality tourism services and strengthen its administrative arm to achieve a clear audit.

Economic development, environment and tourism MEC, Seaparo Sekoati, urged the LTA’s new board members to urgently put in place measures and interventions to ensure that the CEO and the leadership team had the capabilities to carry out roles and duties as set out in their key performance areas and to establish a culture of engagement and empowerment across departments and municipalities with the aim to enhance and integrate all tourism marketing efforts on local and provincial level.

“At the provincial level we aligned the tourism growth strategy with the objectives of the national tourism sector strategy during the tourism lekgotla in the 2012 government and the private sector identifies a number of interventions required to grow tourism in our province where strengthening the marketing of the province as ecotourism destination was seen as one of those interventions required.

“Despite the general increase in tourist arrivals over the last years, both domestic and international, as province we need to acknowledge that the marketing drive from government’s side was inadequate and sometimes absent. In this matter the challenge was usually identified as the lack of funding and capacity challenges experienced within the tourism agency and our municipalities,” Sekoati said.

He said the rationalisation of the agency had become a matter of priority.

“The review of provincial agencies in other provinces was noted and on the national level, the minister of tourism has established a tourism review committee that was set up early this year to review South African tourism’s vision, mission, strategy, plan and the performance of South African tourism against it’s mandate,” he said.

LTA board chairperson, Andrew Dipela, said it was their responsibility as a tourism authority in the province, in partnership with other relevant stakeholders, to make access into the province easy.

“It is imperative that the provincial tourism forum is revitalised and fortified. The process does not have to start with the formation of the structure, but by strengthening tourism association at local and regional levels where the process will then culminate in a strong provincial tourism forum,” Dipela said.