The National Development Plan 2030 and various other public policy and strategy frameworks recognise the tourism sector’s significant contribution to the South African economy. Informed by these frameworks, and within the context of moves to support the sector’s recovery from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and, in the case of KwaZulu-Natal province, the riots of July 2021 and the April 2022 floods, the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Economic Development, Tourism and Environmental Affairs (EDTEA), Tourism KwaZulu-Natal (TKZN) and Seeza Tourism Growth Network secured technical assistance from the SA-EU Dialogue Facility to initiate a dialogue on tourism cluster policies and programmes with two EU Member States, namely France and Spain. It is envisaged that the dialogue will culminate in the development of a tourism cluster in KwaZulu-Natal.
The cluster initiative is considered an innovative way to rebuild the province’s tourism sector, unlock its contribution to the province’s economy, and enhance the destination’s domestic and international competitiveness. As part of the dialogue, a study on tourism clusters in the EU and tourism policy in South Africa was commissioned to inform the future design and implementation of the proposed KZN tourism cluster.
While the current cluster initiative is focused on KZN, the dialogue is open to all tourism players nationally, with the aim of encouraging all provinces to consider developing and implementing tourism clusters of their own.
FEDHASA members are invited to a tourism stakeholder workshop scheduled for Wednesday, 9 November 2022 at the Elangeni Hotel, Durban where the overall tourism cluster dialogue project and the findings of the above research will be presented, and an engagement with the two EU dialogue partners from France and Spain will take place (draft programme attached). The workshop will precede the 25th TCI Network international conference on industry clusters, also scheduled to take place in Durban on 10-11 November 2022, which also forms part of the project’s broader cluster policy and practice learning agenda – https://tci–network.org/tci2022/. The workshop and conference are a unique opportunity to learn more about industry clusters generally and tourism clusters, in particular.
To confirm your attendance (physical or virtual participation), kindly complete the RSVPform.
Should you have any questions or comments kindly contact Palesa Madlhejwane, palesam@africatourismpartners.com, +27 81 700 4163.
