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Tuesday, 29 October 2013] 4869• Skills Development: while the committee acknowledges theinitiatives taken by the department to engage five universities inthe country to develop skills and capacity in the industry, there isalso a need to support FET colleges and Sector Education andTraining Authorities to be linked to business, industry and otheradvanced education and training programmes.• Air Lift: travel by air to some destinations in the country is tooexpensive. Other destinations in the country have poor airconnectivity or no connectivity at all. The YamoussoukroDecision is also not fully implemented and affects regionalconnectivity. There is a need for national government to assist inincreasing number of flights and reduce cost of flights. Thisshould apply to both local and regional air travel.• Implementation of infrastructure development: parliamentshould prioritise overseeing the implementation of infrastructuredevelopment aligned to rural communities and also ascertainsupport facilities in rural areas for tourism sector, particularlyroad and air connectivity.5.2.2 Relevant external research assessing performance of theDepartment.There needs to be a close link between what the Department doesand the response of the private sector in growing the industry inSouth Africa. The Tourism Business Council of South Africa(TBCSA) perspective on the performance of the industry thereforeis crucial in that regard. TBCSA uses the Tourism Business Index(TBI) as a tool of measuring industry performance. The surveyelicits information on trends, current performance, and expectationsof market players as to future performance. The methodologyconforms to the international OECD (Organisation for EconomicDevelopment and Cooperation) and the survey is administered byan e-mail link to an online survey which is carried out on a quarterlybasis. The TBI methodology is based on a business survey sent toCEO’s or senior tourism business executives.In their Annual Report for 2012, the TBCSA confirmed that overall,2012 was a far better year for tourism businesses in South Africacompared to 2011. In this period, tourism business performancepeaked in the last quarter to 104.6, the earliest indications yet thatthe industry was recovering from the previous quarters’performance lows having achieved 101,9 in the first quarter, 88.2 inthe second quarter and 101.6 in the third quarter. On the back ofimproved performance in the last quarter of 2011, the industry wentinto the new year with cautious optimism. This was evident with theindex surpassing normal performance levels slightly to reach a TBIscore of 101.9; a significant development when compared against ascore of 79.6 in the same period in 2011. However, this soonANNOUNCEMENTS, TABLINGS AND COMMITTEE REPORTS NO 147─2013