|
BUILDING A PARTNERSHIP IN
TOURISM - A FIRST IN SOUTH AFRICA
REFLECTIONS ON THE TOURISM
CONFERENCE
Writes: Edwin Sipho
Rihlamvu
Skills development,
retention and transfer in the tourism sector
involve a wide range of public, private and civil
society actors. Success in skills development
requires these actors to work in a commonly agreed
direction and properly coordinated manner. These
were collective voices that chimed at the first
ever National Tourism Skills Development Conference
that was held in Muldersdrift, Gauteng, South
Africa in October 2006.
 The
conference, which was subtly themed; BUILDING A
PARTNERSHIP IN TOURISM was organized under the
auspices of the Department of Environmental Affairs
and Tourism (DEAT) in partnership with the Tourism
Hospitality and Sport Education and Training
Authority (THETA) and the National Business
Initiative (NBI).
Addressing the 600
- strong conference that attracted a maze of
respected industry players, politicians, senior
governments officials, private sector community,
academics, trade unionists, non-governmental
organizations and international delegates including
those from the United Nations World Tourism
Organization (UNWTO), Mr Marthinus van Schalkwyk,
Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism
insisted that the entire industry needed to address
the lack of skills in the tourism sector in order
to provide efficient services to
tourists.
"We recognize the
efforts by larger business to invest in skills
development in spite of the difficulties they have
experienced in accessing training incentives.
However, the challenge in general is to find ways
to improve the institutional responsiveness to
skills demands of domestic and foreign investors,"
said Van Schalkwyk referring to the fact that about
90 percent of the scarce skills in the tourism
sector are in the high-skills level
band.
Tourism is a
nationally recognized sector that can contribute to
economic growth and transformation, and the
reduction of poverty. That is why tourism is being
deliberately positioned to benefit from South
African government's massive investment of R370
billion on infrastructure development, which will
greatly improve the country's offering to
tourists.
However, despite
the growth and apparent robustness of the tourism
sector, local and international thinking show that
this spiraling process requires systematic,
coordinated and constant review of markets and the
dynamics of skills demand. This because the skills
required today may not be the same, as those
required ten years from now.
Gauteng Premier
Mbhazima Shilowa said his province had prioritized
skills development in the sector especially in view
of the 2010 FIFA Soccer World Cup.
'We need to ensure
that the training we provide to marshals during the
world cup goes beyond them marshalling
crowds.
They must be able
to give advice to supporters when they ask where to
find entertainment after a match,'' challenged Mr
Shilowa recalling the fact that one of the most
critical achievements for Germany was that they had
officials who were conversant in all 32 languages
of the participating countries at all the entrance
to the stadiums and at the airports.
In terms of
language training, the Tourism Branch within the
Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism
(DEAT) has led processes, which resulted in the
training of black tourist guides from across the
country in French, Spanish and most recently
Chinese.
Commenting on the
rationale for that undertaking Dr Patrick Matlou,
Deputy Director General for Tourism said: "We
strongly believe that tourist guides are the first
point of contact between tourists and South Africa
and thus should be able to speak their language
proficiently while understanding their cultures.
Furthermore, the cultural, religious, historical
and strategic affinity between our country and
those of our tourist's itself makes language
training important in the context of Africa's
renewal positioning".
These training
programmes are so intense such that the tourist
guides are expected to undergo experiential
training in the countries where those languages are
spoken! And also, there is an in-principle
understanding between the tourism industry and DEAT
to absorb tourist guides as soon as they complete
foreign language training.
Meanwhile,
preparations are afoot to train historically
disadvantaged tourist guides on languages of
foreign nationalities that are likely to descend to
South Africa's shores for the 2010 FIFA Soccer
World Cup: Italian, Russian, German, Portuguese and
Japanese.
"Markets change and
so do the responses of competitors to changing
demand. International competition does not rest and
neither can South Africa's commitment to
understanding market change and the development of
robust response underpinned by world-class tourism
personnel," said Ms Patience Molokoza, Director
&endash; International Tourism
Relations.
Ms Molokoza was
referring to interventions that were championed by
her Directorate, which resulted in the training of
numerous national and provincial officials by the
UNWTO on relevant areas such as tourism destination
marketing, information and knowledge management as
well as creating opportunities for officials to
attend practicum that are organized by the UNWTO,
Commonwealth and other acclaimed international
training institutions.
The Managing
Director of the Southern Sun Group Mr Helder
Pereira said poaching of staff in the industry was
rife and had a negative impact on the
industry.
''South African
hotel managers are highly sought after, especially
by developed countries as they are highly
regarded," said Mr Pereira. According to him, one
of the major challenges in the industry was not
only to provide training to upcoming entrepreneurs
who are starting businesses such as guesthouses,
but also to provide them with business
opportunities.
''We cannot be
satisfied that we have trained a certain number of
people while we do not give them business or
recommend them to visitors when our hotels are
full. Otherwise what happens after we have trained
them, where are they now going to get business to
enable them to survive if we do not assist them
with getting it?'' he asked.
Mr Lulamile
Stuurman, Director - Tourism Human Resources
Development and project manager for the organizing
committee of the Conference called on the business
sector to support the government's national
strategy on skills development. This he said would
address the problem of skills development in the
tourism sector.
"It may often
appear that government, business, labour and
communities have competing interests but we have a
powerful common interest when it comes to
developing skills and people. There is a lot that
we can achieve by aligning our goals and efforts.
Consensus building is never an easy process, but it
results in more robust solutions" said Minister
Marthinus van Schalkwyk, cementing the BUILT
PARTNERSHIP IN TOURISM - A FIRST IN SOUTH
AFRICA.
Edwin Sipho
Rihlamvu
Tourism
International Relations
DEPARTMENT OF
ENVIRONMENTAL AFFAIRS AND TOURISM
SOUTH
AFRICA
Tel: 27 (12) 310
3940
Fax: 27 (12) 322
5754
Mobile: 073 902
4504
E-mail:
erihlamvu@deat.gov.za
|
