Cabinet has reiterated its support for the tourism industry’s transformation initiatives.
The move follows the Department of Tourism’s National Tourism Transformation Summit, which took place from 30 - 31 October under the theme ‘Tourism for all: Transform, Grow and Sustain’.
The tourism industry, being labour intensive with relatively low-barriers to entry, has the potential to empower disadvantaged communities and drive employment growth.
During the summit, the State of Sector Transformation Report was released. The Tourism Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (B-BBEE) Portal and Tourism Transformation Fund were also launched.
In the 2016/17 financial year, the department, together with the Tourism B-BBEE Council, embarked on a new baseline study project to establish the current state of transformation in the tourism sector.
The findings of the study show that the tourism sector, while having made strides, is still performing poorly in transformation, particularly around the priority elements such as ownership, skills development and enterprise and supplier development of the Tourism B-BBEE Codes.
In her address at the summit, Tourism Minister Tokozile Xasa said all stakeholders in the tourism sector must work together to pursue the all-important radical economic transformation.
“Economic transformation needs to be the actual regeneration and re-engineering of the net national social and economic agendas, in significant and meaningful ways that influence the structure of the economy to influence the economic relationship between the old-order and the new social leadership class,” Minister Xasa said. – SAnews.gov.za
