Writes: Edwin Sipho Rihlamvu
           International Tourism Relations - Communications

State of tourism in the African Continent
In the case of the African Continent, tourism is among the top export earners for the majority of states and is an industry that can stimulate jobs and earnings across a multi-sectoral economy. According to preliminary results obtained from the World Tourism Organization (WTO) the number of international tourist arrivals recorded worldwide grew by 5.5% and exceeded 800 million for the first time ever.

“Although 2005 was certainly a tumultuous year, international tourism has fared amazingly well. Despite various terrorist attacks and natural disasters, such as the aftermath of the Indian Ocean tsunami and an extraordinarily long and devastating hurricane season in the United States and the Caribbean, tourism's recovery, which started in 2004, continued firmly through 2005. Even though the disruptions experienced definitely left traces locally in the short-term, they did not substantially alter the global or regional traffic flows” said Mr Claude Pretorius, Portfolio Manager, Americas and UK: South African Tourism.

Whereas growth was more moderate, it is still almost 1.5 percentage points above the long-term average annual growth rate of 4.1%. Overall, the tourism sector has gained substantially in resilience over the past few years and in spite of the turbulent environment we live in nowadays, destinations worldwide added some 100 million international arrivals between 2002 and 2005.

Who is ATA

The growth that is referred to above is arguably attributed to the work that was achieved by the Africa Travel Association (ATA) since its birth back in 1975. This birth was motivated by comments from Hon. Morris Dzoro, Minister of Tourism and Wildlife, Kenya, who remarked:

"I believe it would be a great idea to have an umbrella tourism organization such as the Africa Travel Association that can supplement our promotion and marketing efforts in other tourist-generating markets such as Europe and Asia."

ATA is now an international, non-profit, non-political and educational organisation whose mandate is to promote tourism to the continent of Africa. Its membership comprises of African government tourism offices, international airlines, the accommodation industry, cruise lines, tour operators, and travel agents. It is also a member of the United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO), American Society of Travel Agents (ASTA), and a founding member of the Coalition of Partners of the International Institute for Peace through Tourism (IIPT).

Strategic importance of ATA to the South Africa’s international tourism marketing efforts

“South Africa had an opportunity to measure the success of the work of ATA and appreciate its strategic importance, particularly in relation to our international marketing initiatives. Having made an assessment of the strategic importance of ATA to South Africa’s marketing efforts, a conclusion can be drawn that this organisation has achieved a global position in the travel industry through the establishment of sound and beneficial alliances” said Bulelwa Seti, Chief Director: Tourism Support at the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism (DEAT).

This partnership has placed South African ATA chapter members who are mostly Small Medium and Micro Enterprises (SMME's) in a unique position to access and influence agency owners and travel leaders about travel to and within Africa (South Africa in particular) by the North American market, and African-Americans.

What would SMMEs benefit from ATA?

Commented Ms Patience Molokoza, Director: International Tourism Relations at DEAT: “SMMEs operating in the tourism sector, both directly and indirectly are expected to make a substantial contribution to poverty alleviation, black economic empowerment and income enhancement especially for the rural poor. The opportunities that present themselves in ATA directly address these issues”.

The Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo–Nqcuka made it clear in her speech at INDABA 2006, which was attended by over 11 000 people, and held at the International Convention Centre In Durban from 06 to 09 May 2006 that tourism holds the potential to grow the country’s economy.

This means increasing the industry’s contribution to the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) from 8% to 12% and increase employment to 400 000 by 2014. This increased focus on tourism means that there should be much more focus on skills development, which has been identified as key to the improvement of service and quality across all the different sub sectors of the tourism industry.

It is for this reason that this workshop, which was held on 7 May 2006 and attended by about 250 SMME’s from across the country was aptly themed “Growing the Tourism Economy: Deepening Partnerships Between SMME’s and Stakeholders, in line with ASGISA”. Appropriately, the objective of the workshop was to:

• Encourage all spheres of public and private sectors, both nationally and internationally to support SMME’s and BEE
• Encourage and establish linkages between the South African chapters and other chapters in the Africa region and the North American region
• Assist SMME’s in identifying funding mechanisms and training opportunities that are available through different organizations
• Present SMME’s with an opportunity to interact and network with different role players in the tourism industry and in the ATA Internationally
• Assist ATA chapters to market themselves

Mr Daniel Dunn, a registered tourist guide from the Western Cape had this to say about the workshop: “The workshop was beneficial in the sense that ATA Chapters from around the country were able to interact, share experiences and identify common challenges that have to be surmounted. I believe that we are in concert around the challenges of penetrating the American market, forging a working relationship with established hotels to feed into our B&B’s and finding ways to cooperate instead of competing with each other as SMME’s”, he concluded

Meanwhile Ms Mira Berman, who founded ATA in 1975 and was its Executive Director to date, will be retiring at the end of May 2006. Paying tribute to her work with ATA Marthinus van Schalkwyk, Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism said in a statement: “The face of tourism in the African continent would never be what it is today had it not been for the unrelenting contribution of ATA through the unassuming heroin in the legendary person of Mira Berman.

The proliferation of ATA chapters in South Africa are as a result of her hands on lesson – teaching us to catch fish rather than giving us the proverbial fish! Like a lighthouse, Mira Berman steered ATA through turbulent times to position it to be one of the most respect Association in the tourism industry. Her indelible legacy should inspire all of us to work selflessly towards strengthening tourism as a viable contributor to the economic well being of the African continent and its citizens”.