Opening Address by Marthinus van Schalkwyk, Minister of Environmental Affairs & Tourism, at the Third Annual National Tourism Conference in Midrand, Gauteng, on 13 October 2004

Introduction

This is a great time to be part of tourism in South Africa. Apart from living in a country more united and more successful than ever before, we stand on the verge of an event with the potential to uplift our country. It is six years until South Africa throws open its doors, unveils its stadiums, rolls out the red carpet, and welcomes the world to the 2010 Soccer World Cup – the biggest sporting event to ever grace the African continent, and our single greatest tourism opportunity ever.

The twelve-year-olds of today will be our soccer stars in 2010 – but they are also the young men and women who will be the front-line of the most important tourism and hospitality campaign our country has ever seen. It is they and their generation who will be our airport employees, our taxi drivers, our hotel and guest house staff. It is the youngsters of today who will staff our tourism bureaux, operate our information technology networks, and volunteer as World Cup workers. It is they who will hold the key to showcasing the very best of our people, our country and our continent.

The decision by FIFA to award the 2010 Soccer World Cup to South Africa sent a message echoing around the world – that our people and our country have stepped onto centre-stage and that we stand ready to present every sceptic, every critic and every Afro-pessimist with a permanent red-card.

We must ensure success in 2010, but also position our country at the cutting-edge of global competitiveness in the tourism industry beyond the World Cup. We will only succeed in this endeavour with the complete cooperation and partnership of the industry, all spheres of Government, our statutory bodies, and South Africans from every community.

This Third National Tourism Conference brings these role-players and stakeholders together under one roof for the first time since we won the bid. In many respects the outcomes of this conference will determine the extent to which we stand ready by 2010 to welcome the world – and the kind of legacy that the Soccer World Cup will leave to South Africa.

We have hosted the rugby and cricket World Cups, the CAF cup, and the All African Games. We have successfully staged the World Summit on Sustainable Development and the World Parks Congress. We know that we have the skills, the energy and the determination to succeed – but our experience has also shown that success is not random, it is planned to the last detail, it is preparation, implementation and operational excellence. These events were successful because of the outstanding cooperation and coordination by our tourism industry with other key role-players like the police and emergency services.

Six years may seem like a long time, but if we are to grasp the opportunities of the World Cup then we will need every moment to get ready. It is our responsibility to meet and exceed the expectations that were raised by the Bid. This conference presents our best chance to craft a concrete and workable tourism action plan for 2010 – and this must be the outcome of our discussions.

The direct impact of the World Cup on South Africa and our region will be beyond anything that has come before. More than 400 000 visitors. More than 40 billion viewers in 204 countries. 32 teams from Europe, North America, Latin America, Asia and Africa. 128 warm-up matches and 64 competition matches played in all nine provinces with revenue from ticket sales and taxes in the billions of Rands – and this is just the start. Our 2010 Bid Company CEO, Danny Jordaan, will speak in more detail about this later today.

When tens of thousands of soccer fans descend on the Peter Mokaba Stadium in Polokwane for instance, to cheer on their favourites, it is our job to ensure that the walls of the stadium do not define the limits of their tourism adventure. We need to ensure that they experience the mystique of ancient Mapungubwe, the wonders of the Cycad Forest of Modjadji, and the realm of the Rain Queen. We need to entice them with the allure of the Big Five, and convince them to return repeatedly.

We must see 2010 as a critical milestone and not as an end-goal. The greatest impact of the World Cup must not be its direct impact – for then we will have wasted our opportunity. The biggest impact must be permanently positioning our tourism industry at the leading edge of global competitiveness and ensuring sustainable tourism growth well beyond 2010. The World Cup will open major new tourism markets for South Africa – in the soccer-playing nations of the Spanish, Japanese, and Portuguese-speaking world for example. This is the real potential of the 2010 Soccer World Cup, to help us make the next ten years our decade of opportunity.

Addressing issues like tourism safety, access, product development, quality assurance, pricing, infrastructure capacity, and skills development may well be required in terms of our Bid commitments, but more importantly they remain our medium- and long-term challenges in the industry as a whole. We will examine these drivers of and barriers to tourism in greater detail during the sessions tomorrow.

One of the most important challenges in preparing for 2010 is to ensure that the event is truly an African World Cup. It was on the strength of this concept that our Bid was successful, and it is crucial for the long-term development of tourism in our region. South Africa will be the stage, but Africa will be the hosts.

The Regional Tourism Organisation of Southern Africa (RETOSA) has the potential to be the key that unlocks the benefits of the World Cup particularly for the SADC countries. International visitors who make the lengthy journey to South Africa for the event will want to combine the trip with a wider exploration of the African experience. This will require us to carefully coordinate the marketing not only of the World Cup itself but also of pre- and post-events and travel packages to appeal to these visitors.

We will also need to work in close partnership to ensure the quality of the tourism experience. South Africa has already been approached by our regional partners like Namibia, Botswana, Swaziland and Lesotho with an eye towards reproducing our grading system in their tourism industries. With interest also expressed by African countries as far north as Tanzania and Uganda there is important regional potential to be tapped. Using the World Cup as a catalyst we should be striving towards guaranteeing the quality of the African tourism experience for travellers to any of our countries – ensuring that they return repeatedly to our region.

The period from 9 June to 9 July 2006 will be a very important month in determining the success of our 2010 tourism campaign. It is during this time that the eyes of the world will be firmly focused on Germany for the 2006 World Cup.

I would like today to lay down both a challenge and an invitation to our tourism industry – to view Germany 2006 as the launch pad for our 2010 tourism marketing campaign.

Following the International Tourism Exchange Berlin (ITB) in March next year, I plan to lead a delegation on a visit to Germany to unlock the opportunities provided by the 2006 World Cup, as well as their preparations, marketing strategies and tourism readiness. I would like to invite the leaders of our tourism business sector to join me as part of that delegation – to leverage the greatest possible boost for our own efforts towards 2010.

This has been a momentous year for tourism in South Africa. It has seen the launch and roll-out of our new international brand. We have ignited the BEE Scorecard process. Our new Sho’t Left domestic marketing campaign has spread like wildfire and achieved exceptional success. Our tourism grading system has been extended, the number of students studying tourism in our schools has jumped from 55 000 to 127 000, and of course we have been granted the opportunity to host the 2010 Soccer World Cup.

There are few sentiments more relevant to this Third National Tourism Conference than the tag-line of our new global brand: It’s Possible. We are proving this time and again through tourism in South Africa.

President Mbeki has said that the World Cup in Africa will reaffirm our common humanity and offer Africa a journey of hope. It is our responsibility to ensure that this vision is realised, and that by 2010 we stand ready to welcome the world.

On behalf of our Department I thank you for your participation in this conference and your partnership in gearing up for tourism in 2010. As we build our stadiums, as we practice with our vuvuzelas, as we prepare for 2010 let us acknowledge that not only must we ensure that the World Cup Trophy remains in South Africa after the event, we want the real treasures – jobs, development, infrastructure and lasting tourism growth – to boost South Africa not just for four years, but for decades after 2010.