Achieving Tourism Transformation Through Skills Development And Capacity Building - Pivot
Achieving Tourism Transformation Through Skills Development And Capacity Building - Pivot



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Achieving Tourism Transformation Through Skills Development And Capacity Building - Pivot

2017-06-12

The KZN provincial department of economic development, tourism and environmental affairs endeavours to promote tourism awareness and understanding amongst all KwaZulu-Natal residents including schools and the media. This endeavour is based on the premise of the KZN Tourism Master Plan: improving recognition of the tourism sector as an important economic contributor, cultivating the general understanding of what the tourism sector is and improving attitudes towards providing for the needs of visitors.

The master plan continues to stipulate and emphasise the importance of increasing the representation of disadvantaged individuals in ownership and management across all types and sizes of tourism business, and improving tourism benefits to disadvantaged individuals. Hence, skills, youth development and job creation remain amongst the key priorities of government and indeed the provincial department is determined to make a contribution towards these priorities.

PROFESSIONALISATION OF TOURIST GUIDES

The professionalisation of the tourist guides' sector is informed by the strategy developed by the National Department of Tourism (NDT) in collaboration with the provinces, which seeks to ensure that the sector is chosen as a career as long as proper competence, knowledge and skills are acquired by any individual who has obtained a recognised qualification. The strategy further requires guides to gather and share experiences and challenges with the view of enhancing themselves and the sector as a whole.

The International Tourist Guides Day Celebration is one of the platforms where guides are afforded an opportunity to meet with other guides and celebrate their contribution to the tourism sector. The guides are also motivated and encouraged to act professionally at all times when guiding.

The International Tourist Guides Day Celebration (ITGDC) was established in 1989, during the Third International Convention of the World Federation of Tourist Guide Association (WFTGA). The WFTGA declared the 21st of February as International Tourist Guides Day Celebration and was held for the first time in 1990. Only 15 countries around the world participated and jointly celebrated this special day. Over the years, awareness about this day has grown and to date, more than 75 countries celebrate this event worldwide. In South Africa, the event is gaining prominence and is celebrated at both national and provincial levels.

The aim and objective of this event is to create a platform for emerging tourist guides to meet with experienced guides to share best practices about the sector and other tourism trends. The event also seeks to introduce new programmes and initiatives that address issues of radical transformation within the tourist guides profession. Furthermore, it aims to recognise and honour tourist guides for their passion, commitment, dedication and contribution to the tourism sector and in marketing South Africa and the province globally, hence they are called ambassadors of the country.

The 2017 National ITGDC was staged over the 2nd to the 3rd of March 2017 on Robben Island with the main event marking the international celebration of tourist guides day. The event provided a platform for Tourist Guides to discuss their role in promoting peace, security, and mutual understanding in relation to the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals. The KZN Province was represented by a delegation of sixteen guides from the eleven district municipalities who attended theevent with the view of enhancing their knowledge, obtaining relevant information, and learning best practices from other guides and organisations.

During the event, the Minister of Tourism indicated that the National Department is developing a cross-border guide training programme, which will be piloted in collaboration with Namibia. The NDT is finalising new regulations for tourist guiding to improve the process of registering tourist guides, and to ensure more effective compliance with the regulations and professionalisation of the sector. The Minister also announced that a mobile application is being developed to help tourists to access registered tourist guides in the area they are visiting.

The appointment of Ms Aluschka Ritchie from South Africa who has been chosen to lead the World Federation of Tourist Guides Associations at the 2017 World Federation of Tourist Guides Conference was also a highlight of the event. Similarly, in the month of March 2017, the province in partnership with the KZN Sharks Board and the KZN Tourist Guides Association hosted the Provincial International Tourist Guides Day Celebration in keeping with the National theme “Peace and Development through Guiding”. However, core to the celebration event was a workshop which was held to discuss and tackle tourist guide related issues from a provincial perspective.

The Province followed the fundamental objectives of the celebration which is to create a platform for emerging, tourist guides to meet with experienced guides to share best practices about the sector and other tourism trends. Tourist guides from all eleven districts were invited and speakers from: South African Police Service, Tourism KwaZulu-Natal,, and insurance companies were also invited to deliver presentations during the workshop. The open session allowed for guides to share their success stories where guides who were trained in Russian foreign language, shared and demonstrated their knowledge obtained during the training. The session also afforded guides to raise their concerns on issues relating to their day to day services within the sector some of which require intervention by relevant institutions and departments.

TRANSFORMATION, AWARENESS, SKILLS DEVELOPMENT AND POSSIBLE JOB OPPORTUNITIES

The NDT in collaboration with the KZN Department of Economic Development Tourism & Environmental Affairs, uMhlathuze Local Municipality and Isimangaliso Wetland Park, a World Heritage Site in KwaZulu-Natal, has already trained 20 tourist guides as part of up-skilling tourist guides to ensure a continuous development within the tourist guide profession. This programme will be extended to other World Heritage Sites in the future.

Fourteen tourist guides are amongst the first intake of 28 trainees that are being trained in Russian and Mandarin languages, so they can cater and service tourists from the fast growing source markets of Russia and China. The KZN province is proud to have participated in the programme and have had representation in all these initiatives which will increase employment opportunities for tourist guides who are part of these programmes. A continuous professional development programme (CPDP) will soon be offered by NDT in collaboration with the provinces to help guides update their knowledge and enhance their services throughout their careers to keep pace with rapid change in the tourism environment.

Skills, youth development and job creation remain amongst the key priorities of government and in keeping with these priorities, the department is determined to make a contribution and runs programmes directed at the youth of KwaZulu-Natal. To date, the Department continues to support the Tourism Graduate Development Programme aimed at assisting tourism students and unemployed tourism graduates to gain experiential training and acquire skills, in order to widen their opportunities for employment within the sector.

One of the key programmes is a series of road shows called the Tourism and Entrepreneurship Careers Expos (TECE) which seek to impart knowledge to the youth on job and entrepreneurial opportunities within the tourism space.

The TECE were established as a platform for interaction between prospective employers and future employees. These expos are currently being hosted within various district municipalities. The main aim of TECE is to create an interactive platform for the public, learners at high school level, students at tertiary institutions, unemployed graduates, unemployed youth, parents, education and training providers and/or organisations, employer organisations and government departments in the tourism sector.

Over 8000 young people from predominantly rural areas benefitted from this initiative, intended at kindling the youth’s entrepreneurial flair and also channel them towards tourism related careers. In the month of March 2017, the expos were staged at uThukela District Municipality and King Cetshwayo District Municipality.

Mr Sihle Zikalala, in his speech at the Expo, alluded to the fact that these initiatives create an appetite among young people to look favourably upon entrepreneurship and tourism as a form of job creation.

“There is a growing consensus internationally that tourism is one of the key economic pillars, a sector that has the propensity to provide employment and entrepreneurship opportunities. The Department deemed it necessary to introduce the Tourism and Entrepreneurship Careers Expo as an initiative that would connect our youth into the economic pipeline as per the dictates of our Provincial Youth Economic Empowerment Strategy which advocates for the implementation of a sector focused approach to Youth Economic Empowerment.”

Mr Zikalala added that, even though tourism has been identified as one of the main contributors to the economy of the province and that of the country as a whole, the sector continues to experience skills shortages and gaps. Hence, “Staging these tourism career expos will result in a mind-set shift among young people of KwaZulu-Natal and, more importantly, assist in addressing the skills shortage challenge as underlined in both the National Tourism Sector Strategy and the KZN Tourism Master Plan,” the MEC concluded.




Achieving Tourism Transformation Through Skills Development And Capacity Building - Pivot

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