Southern Africa’s tourism industry needs to move beyond resilience and focus on deliberately building its next phase of growth, SATSA National Chair Oupa Pilane told delegates at the SATSA Conference in Cape Town.
Opening the conference under the theme Eduze Kwam – Staan My By, Pilane said the industry has proved its ability to withstand crises and overcome obstacles but warned against allowing self-resilience to become the measure of success.
“We survived. Now we must build. What would tourism look like if we stopped designing around constraints?”
Pilane said the industry’s next chapter needs to focus on “intentional growth” requiring leadership measured not by titles or visibility but by “what we change, what we build and what we leave behind”.
He said SATSA needs to continue speaking out when something is wrong while increasingly helping to develop solutions.
“We must challenge government where it fails but we must also be willing to sit with government and help solve the problems. Our industry does not need spectators. It needs builders.”
Pilane said this requires a new approach to industry advocacy where tourism can present government with the evidence, economic cost and potential solution to the challenges confronting the sector.
New approach to key markets
SATSA CEO David Frost said the conference theme is also about standing together while being prepared to “speak truth to power”.
He said the industry was resilient during the first five months of the year although uncertainty in the Gulf remained unresolved.
But Frost said South Africa’s performance in some key source markets demands a change in approach, particularly China and India, where arrivals remain at around 47% of 2012 levels.
“Whatever we are doing, it isn’t working. We need a shift.”
Frost said SATSA is now putting funding behind efforts to stimulate demand from priority markets following last year’s decision to retain TOMSA funding within the TBCSA/TOMSA structure and actively invest it.
Task teams have been established for China, India, the UK and Ireland, German-speaking Europe, North America and mainland Africa with practical market plans expected to be shared within the next two to three months.
SATSA is also examining opportunities in Mexico, Brazil and the Middle East as well as niche segments including adventure, golf and youth travel.
The work will be aligned with SA Tourism. Frost said joint task teams will be established to ensure the initiatives do not operate in isolation.
