THE Indaba Tourism 2011 Global Media Face-Off tackled pertinent issues that will translate the South African tourism industry into a powerful emerging market that rightfully conforms to the critical objectives as outlined in the global trends and the country's National Tourism Sector Strategy frameworks.
These exciting news were deliberated upon at the Inkosi Albert Luthuli International Convention Centre during the Indaba Tourism 2011 Global Media Face-Off that was moderated by the internationally-renowned CNN's Richard Quest, and was attended by approximately 500 domestic and foreign journalists.
South African Tourism CEO Thandiwe January-McClean emphasised the importance of the Soth African people, their culture, heritage and their lifestyle offerings and dubbed it as a critical key towards enhancing athe country's vibrant tourism industry and how they aimed to maximise the international visitor gains.
She noted that South Africa's further success in the tourism industry lies in the diversification of the country's target market base, coupled with the offerings it presented to the wider international tourist.
" The objectives of the National Tourism Sector Strategy is a new focus supported by South African Tourism's marketing strategies and campaigns for the subsequent years, and of particular importance to us are the new markets that showed exponential growth last year" said January-McClean.
Despite reservations from the panellists over the critical challenges encountered through the swift air travel inside and outside the country, Allan Moore from the Board of Airline Representatives of South Africa, re-assurred 2011 Indaba Tourism delegates that 'if there were air routes that were proving to be competitive and cost effective,' they will not hesitate in adding more flights.
"The projected growth in air travel to the Republic would create further motivation for additional flights. We shall address the call to reign in costs as this reduce attractiveness for airlines usage. This was a concerning challenge that needs to be addressed to reach out to our arrival targets from identified tourism markets" explained Moore.
Speaker after speaker noted that they needed to collaborate holisticly and it agreed that the key to success lies in communication between various tourism sector bodies.
The past immediate Head of the Durban's ICC, who is now the International Marketing Council CEO, Miller Matola said the emerging market threshold could not have come at a better time as it presented huge opportunities for the country's local leisure and business tourism bodies.
Accordingly, Matola paraphrased the discussion into four words; "New markets, same challenges", and he cajoled the tourism industry stakeholders to maximise new opportunities now that they were members of the rapidly-trade developing 'Brazil, Russia,India, China, South Africa' axis.
"Given South Africa's prominence in the emerging global economy, following our recent intergation into BRICS, the rise of the developing world's share of global economic power is particularly relevant to future growth of the tourism industry" emphasized Matola.
ENDS
Moore's re-assurance concided with the weekend announcement that KwaZulu-Nata's King Shaka International Airport is to get direct flights to London and air route across Africa, to Kenya.
The announcement was signed off, among others by KZN Economic Development and Tourism MEC Mike Mabuyakhulu, Dube TradePort CEO Rohan Persad and the CEO of country's largest privatelyy owned Comair Airlines, Gidon Novick.
Monday, May 9, 2011
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