Minister of Tourism comes to Luthuli Museum (1/04/11)

Minister of Tourism, Mr Marthinus van Schalkwyk, visited the Luthuli Museum on Wednesday 24 March 2011 to launch the National Tourism Sector Strategy (NTTS).
In his keynote speech he said the strategy would help position tourism as one of the fundamental pillars of the South African economy.
The South African government has identified tourism as one of the key contributing sectors to the medium-term strategic priorities of growing the economy and creating decent work.
“The launch here today is a document that the entire tourism sector in South Africa can be immensely proud of. This strategy will serve not only as a tool of inspiration to grow our sector to greater heights than ever before, but also as a map to guide us along the way and a yardstick by which to measure our performance. I believe the NTSS will be the driver that will enable us to reach our ambitious growth targets,” Minister van Schalkwyk said.
The minister made it clear that the draft strategy, which was published in May 2010, made provision for a period of public comment.
The National Department of Tourism received more than 37 000 inputs from a wide range of stakeholders, including government agencies, provinces, municipalities, associations and individuals. These were considered, and further bilateral consultations on the revised draft strategy were held with stakeholders.
The key focus areas of the NTSS are tourism, increased GDP and job creation.
The NTSS has responsibilities for every stakeholder segment in the sector. Its success will depend on the extent of coordination of its implementation. To ensure that there is a cooperative and collaborative approach to implementation, the NTSS provides for the establishment of a Delivery Forum. This is comprised of the public sector, private sector, organised labour, civil society and knowledge groups.
“The vision of the NTSS is to position South Africa as one of the top 20 tourism destinations globally by 2020, and I believe our concerted and focused efforts as a sector will enable us to reach this goal,” the Minister said.