announcements, tablings and committee reports - Parliament of ...

Tuesday, 29 October 2013] 4871businesses, the corporate and business travel marketreducing their spend on travel, reduced disposable incomefor the domestic market, exchange rates, slow debtrepayment by customers and bad weather conditions.• Exposure to the growing Asian and African markets and lackof Destination Marketing Organisations.• Maintaining market share as online travel portals make iteasy for tourists to book direct, thus cutting out the need fora tour operator or travel agent.• Long haul destination making access to South Africaexpensive and difficult.These issues therefore need attention of both the Department ofTourism and South African Tourism. Some of the issues raised bythe private sector were also raised by stakeholders during publichearings. These issues are very important for the sector and shouldbe taken seriously. The Committee recommends that theDepartment investigates issues raised by the private sector andconsider them their marketing campaigns. It must be acknowledgedthat the private sector is the one in the forefront of providing atourist experience in the country and their perspective is based onpractical industry experience. A comprehensive approach inaddressing these issues will however need coordination of allstakeholders, public and private sector, and all spheres ofgovernment. This also means tourism need more budget to addresssome of the pertinent issues.5.3 Concluding comments on service delivery performanceJudging by the increase in the number of arrivals in South Africa,both the Department and South African Tourism performed fairlywell. However, the Committee is concerned about a trend ofcontinuous decline in domestic tourism. The Committeeacknowledges that tourism is a sector that depends on a number ofother government departments and that the national Department ofTourism alone cannot provide holistic service delivery. A morecoordinated approach to tourism development in the country isneeded amongst all the stakeholders.Despite the Committee being generally satisfied with servicedelivery to communities, a number of service delivery issuesemanating from poor coordination of resources amongst the threespheres of government were observed. The Department should useall intergovernmental forums to create synergy amongst all spheresof government and the private sector.ANNOUNCEMENTS, TABLINGS AND COMMITTEE REPORTS NO 147─2013