Harness great riches of EC through tourism

It is now broadly accepted that tourism is vital to the Eastern Cape’s economic fortunes and is one of the priority sectors with significant potential to create jobs in our skills-scarce economy, develop rural communities and provide sizeable opportunities for diversifying the provincial economy.

The Eastern Cape, while endowed with a diverse range of natural attractions in addition to a rich and colourful heritage with high tourism potential, still lags behind other provinces in terms of domestic and international visitors.

While the Eastern Cape is the fourth most visited province by locals after Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal and Limpopo, it has the second lowest number of international visitors, beating only the Northern Cape. And it does not even feature anywhere in surveys on the country’s most visited attractions or landmarks.

This should not be so for a province that is the birthplace of some of the world’s most highly revered leaders, including Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu, Bantu Stephen Biko, Chris Hani, Robert Sobukwe, Govan Mbeki and many others.

The province also has some of the most spectacular natural landmarks with the Wild Coast ranking among the most beautiful places on the planet.

But, with most forecasts pointing to an overall positive outlook for the tourism sector in the medium term, is the Eastern Cape doing enough to harness the virtually unlimited potential offered by tourism?

In the province’s diagnostic planning documents for Vision 2030, tourism is singled out as having more potential than any other sector as an economic driver. The document goes on to point out that with appropriate support, growth in this sector can reach “unprecedented heights”.

Yes, those are the exact words used.

So, what are some of the key steps necessary to reach these noble aspirations?

Firstly, it is important to dispel some misconceptions relating to tourism. When most people think of tourism, they have perceptions of sun, sea and hotels as representing the industry. However, this sector is multifaceted and includes, amongst others, eco-tourism as well as heritage, cultural, sports and adventure tourism among many others. The Eastern Cape has an abundance of all these assets.

In sum, tourism as an economic activity is a complex network of multiple and independent providers of goods and services – a full service industry.

Secondly, tourism is a significant contributor to the national and provincial economy. For roughly every nine tourists who visit South Africa, one job is created. The sector is labour-intensive, and this labour is often female and unskilled. More importantly, its impact is spatially dispersed with services “produced and consumed” on site. Moreover, the sector is large. It employs around 5% of the country’s workforce. There are more people working in tourism than employed in the mines. It contributes more to South Africa’s economic output than agriculture. For the Eastern Cape, it is similar in size to the automotive manufacturing sector with 40000 direct jobs. It is therefore, a vital sector for the province and should be central in efforts to foster more rapid and more inclusive growth.

The province faces immense challenges and key in solving these is accelerating the pace of inclusive growth. Inclusive growth here refers to growth that allows all citizens and all sections of society to contribute and benefit from economic growth. All relevant economic policy documents identify this need as arguably the biggest challenge facing the country.

In the Eastern Cape, the challenge is even more pronounced with economic activity concentrated in the two metropolitan municipalities: Nelson Mandela Bay and Buffalo City, which together account for less than 30% of the provincial population but contribute over 60% of the province’s output.

Over two-thirds of the populace lives in largely rural areas and constitutes our most vulnerable citizens. In light of this, the tourism sector’s ability to create employment for the most vulnerable, in particular youth and women, elevates it to the top of any job creation strategy.

In its latest Africa report, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (Unctad) outlines a number of ways in which tourism can foster inclusivity.

First, given that a large share of opportunities in the sector are suitable for low skilled workers, this becomes particularly relevant for a South African economy that has become more capital and skills-intensive with fewer new low-skill jobs being created.

Second, out of pocket spending in shopping or transport by visitors in an area is likely to reach the poor – especially when the goods sold are sourced locally. This requires that our small local suppliers and entrepreneurs in rural communities are integrated in the tourism value chain.

Third, agriculture has the strongest linkage with tourism and has immense potential to provide additional markets for small-scale farmers.

Fourth, is that recent trends show that international visitors attach much more value on areas with warm climates, preferring new and unspoilt environments, history and cultural products, all of which give rural areas a comparative advantage over cities in attracting visitors.

The final point in the Unctad report relates to tourism’s relatively low investment requirements. Specifically, the production of local craft and traditional handicrafts requires only traditional knowledge and local materials with minimum finance or infrastructure needed.

In addition, there is high demand for traditional music and local themed tours, and these depend on traditional knowledge and skills.

What can be done so that Eastern Cape tourism reaches “unprecedented heights”?

From a policy perspective, the country’s current policy framework provides for the promotion, regulation and rationalisation of the sector. All good and well, but it can only go so far. What is key is for national and provincial tourism strategies to be based on district and local level strategies that focus on more targeted approaches. Getting the basics right can do a lot more towards catalysing growth in the sector than any sophisticated master plan can hope to achieve. Local is good.

This may entail providing basic enabling infrastructure, services and safety for tourism activities to flourish in all 45 municipalities. The strategic goals of the various national, provincial and local state entities should be mutually reinforcing and support the same strategic objectives.

The role of provincial authorities such as the departments of Economic Development, Environmental Affairs and Tourism (Dedeat), Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta) and the Eastern Cape Parks and Tourism Agency (ECPTA) become key in supporting and strengthening the many stakeholders in the sector in the use of various methods and tools to develop local tourism.

This needs solid skills in management, monitoring and operations in many areas including organisation, planning, promotion, contracting out and others.

To realise any success in cultivating a dynamic rural tourism sector, the role of traditional leaders is also paramount. Traditional leaders are key partners of government at all levels and a critical role-player in governance, service delivery and development. We know from experience that very often few of the benefits from tourism go to rural communities, except for low level employment in lodges and hotels.

Traditional leadership with the support of local government and the province can establish more systematic and coordinated relationships between communities, local hotels/lodges or other established tourist attractions. This will ensure more benefits for local communities. For the Eastern Cape, traditional leadership can lead in bringing to the fore and cultivating unique visitor experiences through multiple offerings such as local foods, attire, language, unique archaeological sites and battlefields and so on. The benefit of such an endeavour should not be underestimated. Over time, the province can integrate local skills and local products into a dynamic tourism value chain.

Finally, the most important ingredient in fostering a vibrant tourism sector is, I believe, a mind-set change in all of us.

The province needs to acknowledge that tourism is fiercely competitive. For tourism destinations the world over, including in South Africa, competitive advantage is no longer natural, but increasingly man-made – driven by innovation, technology, science and information.

For example, Africa is blessed with the same wildlife which means each country or province must create its own unique brand to attract tourists to move from one destination to another. The country and province are called on to create more service offerings and products to complement traditional visitor attractions.

With the right support, targeted interventions and an enabling local government environment, there is nothing stopping the Eastern Cape from becoming the top destination for visitors from across the world.

Tshepo Masoeu is strategist in the legislative sector