Editorial

opian myth! "THINGS aren't likely to get much better unless a more concerted effort is made to generate excitement and interest in itself as a tourist destination as the Euro makes travel within the European Union more attractive and easier than ever. There are two ways the government can play a role in international travel marketing - facilitating a traveller's entrance and exit, and supporting the country's effort to market itself abroad. Efforts to obtain meaningful funding for a national tourism effort are a slow tedious process." Not comments, as one might initially think, on the SA tourism industry, but excerpts from an article written by a US-columnist based on Capitol Hill in Washington DC on the state of the tourism sector in that country. The sector, it is reported, has long been battling to win federal support for its efforts to attract more international travellers, a result of which is that the US-share of the international market has slipped and the country now ranks only third on the list of the world's top travel destinations, behind Spain and France. The US Travel and Tourism Administration in the Department of Commerce was reportedly axed in budget cuts some four years ago and the National Tourism Organisation - 'a carrot created by Congress to encourage the private sector to develop a public/private funding stream' - fell by the wayside when industry 'failed to produce a viable plan'. It does one good, once in a while, to take a look at just how far the SA industry has come in relationship to its partnerships and to realise that - contrary to what many stakeholders think - there's no such place as Utopia! (Source: Hotel & Motel Management) (Elizabeth Sheridan)