Marthinus van Schalkwyk, Minister of Tourism, is not known for flowery language, but is reported to have used some interesting expressions in his address to the General Assembly on Tourism and Aviation of the Airline Association of Southern Africa earlier this week, reports eTurboNews.
Minister van Schalkwyk said that the aviation and tourism industries were dealing with the same customers, but called them different names. ‘What you call passengers, we call tourists, and that includes both business and leisure travelers. Aviation is the midwife for more than 50% of international tourist arrivals and 70% of all tourism receipts worldwide. But the inverse is of course also true: Tourism is also a “midwife” for air transport growth‘, he said.
Trends which affect the Tourism industry, identified by the Minister, were the following:
* Tourism has grown rapidly in the past 60 years. ‘Globally, we expect 350 million new international tourist arrivals by 2020 and, by 2030, we expect arrivals to top 1.8 billion. What makes our sector so unique is its multiplying effect in contributing to GDP (gross domestic product) and job creation’. The G20 declaration adopted last year reflects the positive social and economic effect of tourism.
* Economic and political power is moving to the South and to the East. ‘Over the next Continue reading →
