Nigel Vere Nicoll, Chief Executive of African Travel and Tourism Association (ATTA), wrote the following letter to TUO in response to Colin Bell’s letter about South Africa’s tourism arrivals figures.
In support of Colin Bell – never a truer word said but it’s pan-African, Colin, not just in the South!
After 40 years in tourism I have long been suspicious of the stats hype. Way back in 1982, Kenya tourism minister, Mwangali, was promising a million tourists to Kenya within three years. Wow! Stats are all cloud cuckoo land and always have been. In short, head-count stats are flawed and in any case, completely immaterial. One million, ten million who cares and who is really counting?
The bottom line is that tourism ministers worldwide, including the UK, hardly ever have influence in cabinet and are very low in the ministerial pecking order. So they will remain until they can persuade their chancellors/finance ministers that tourism can be a pillar of the economy. The figure needed is not a grossly exaggerated or manipulated head count, it is the audited revenue and forex that tourism can bring to a country.
The UNWTO summit in Rio 2012 grandly concluded that tourism could make a significant contribution to the three pillars of sustainable development – economic, social and environmental. Big words indeed from professors and economists who, I suspect, have never waited at table, made a bed, cleaned a bathroom or sat up behind the bar until the last over-refreshed client goes to bed, but that’s our trade, these are facts not stats. And that’s capitalism I suppose.
But in my simple terms, in 2012 one small lodge in Mozambique, a member of my association, with just eight rooms, employs 45 local staff who, in turn, through the extended African family, indirectly support over 1000 people. Surely that’s what tourism in Africa is all about? Stats are meaningless in Africa. Let’s face the facts instead.
In support of Colin Bell – never a truer word said but it’s pan-African, Colin, not just in the South!
After 40 years in tourism I have long been suspicious of the stats hype. Way back in 1982, Kenya tourism minister, Mwangali, was promising a million tourists to Kenya within three years. Wow! Stats are all cloud cuckoo land and always have been. In short, head-count stats are flawed and in any case, completely immaterial. One million, ten million who cares and who is really counting?
The bottom line is that tourism ministers worldwide, including the UK, hardly ever have influence in cabinet and are very low in the ministerial pecking order. So they will remain until they can persuade their chancellors/finance ministers that tourism can be a pillar of the economy. The figure needed is not a grossly exaggerated or manipulated head count, it is the audited revenue and forex that tourism can bring to a country.
The UNWTO summit in Rio 2012 grandly concluded that tourism could make a significant contribution to the three pillars of sustainable development – economic, social and environmental. Big words indeed from professors and economists who, I suspect, have never waited at table, made a bed, cleaned a bathroom or sat up behind the bar until the last over-refreshed client goes to bed, but that’s our trade, these are facts not stats. And that’s capitalism I suppose.
But in my simple terms, in 2012 one small lodge in Mozambique, a member of my association, with just eight rooms, employs 45 local staff who, in turn, through the extended African family, indirectly support over 1000 people. Surely that’s what tourism in Africa is all about? Stats are meaningless in Africa. Let’s face the facts instead.
