SA President Cyril Ramaphosa Keynote Address At Africa's Travel Indaba

Added: 2026-05-18

[00:00:01]the deputy minister of tourism, meou, the mayor of municipality, who is also called Sirill.

[00:00:16]Now, because I'm older than him, I give him an annual license to use the name Sir.

[00:00:25]So, he didn't renew his license this year.

[00:00:29]your worship councelor Sir Gaba, ministers and deputy ministers who are also here present.

[00:00:39]Our traditional leaders from their royal house who are also here present.

[00:00:46]Ministers from across our African continent.

[00:00:50]Leaders of tourism authorities from across our continent.

[00:00:56]members of parliament and our legislature who are also here present, exhibitors, buyers and members of the media, distinguished guests and ladies and gentlemen.

[00:01:12]Just as I walked in, I just could feel and sense a real vibe here. I even asked Minister Dil, "What is this? Is this a jamboree? Have you brought me to a party? Uh, is this a place to have fun?

[00:01:28]It does look like you are all here to have fun. Even those of you who are wearing a tie and a suit like the premier and Reverend Zonyi. So, continue to have the fun and uh if nothing else, I'd like nothing more than to stay here and have a little bit of fun with you.

[00:01:51]Now your theme is unlimited Africa growing Africa's tourism economy.

[00:02:01]And it's interesting that we could be talking about tourism as a growth economy.

[00:02:08]Some years ago traveling into the continent I met one of the elder statesmen who is the head of state who said you know in the past whenever people came to our country the officials the home affairs or the customs or the passport officials would often ask as visitors came to present send their passports. The question they would ask is what is your name? They would give their name, look at the passport. What do you want here in our country? And they would say we've come to tour and to look at the wonderful splendor of either animals or landscape.

[00:03:00]What do you want to do with it? Do you want to take our animals away?

[00:03:06]you don't have animals in Europe, so you've come here to steal our animals.

[00:03:12]And they would continue asking them those testing questions.

[00:03:17]And he said that in many ways is what prevented the growth of our tourism.

[00:03:25]But today we tell a different story.

[00:03:29]We tell a story that a tourism is one of the most strategically important sectors to our continent.

[00:03:40]It is a new as well as an old sector.

[00:03:44]It is old because our people have always traveled across the various lands that we have on our continent. It is new because it has become an important sector in the economy of any country. I was in Spain the other day and I was told that every year they welcome 30 million tourists into their country.

[00:04:12]They are like number two or so. There's another country that welcomes 40 million and above. So tourism has become an important sector in the economy of many countries. Our people on the African continent have always traveled across the continent to various countries.

[00:04:36]This sector in the end sits at the heart but as well as the intersection of economic growth, employment, infrastructure development, cultural diplomacy as well as conservation and continental integration.

[00:04:58]This is really the heart of what tourism is all about and what it contributes to the economies of our continent.

[00:05:09]For many African countries, tourism is not merely a leisurious industry. It is a developmental instrument.

[00:05:19]It becomes an instrument through which we can grow our economies.

[00:05:26]Tourism must be seen for what it is, a major economic driver as it contributes billions of dollars annually to many African economies.

[00:05:42]But those African economies have to create a conducive environment for this treasure trove to be opened for these people to come to various parts of our continent to come and see the glamour the splendor of what Africa has to give.

[00:06:05]Yes, they bring foreign exchange.

[00:06:08]There are tax revenues that our countries can get and there are investment inflows.

[00:06:16]As people see the splendor of what our continent has to give, they become incentivized to invest and small businesses also develop.

[00:06:30]Job creation becomes an added activity that we should rely on. But the more important part as well is the skills development.

[00:06:43]Skills development that should benefit the young people, the women of our continent and the disabled people on our continent. Now before COVID 19, tourism accounted for possibly around 7% of Africa's GDP directly and indirectly and supported tens of millions of jobs across our continent and countries such as Egypt, South Africa, Kenya, Tanzania, Mauritius and Rwanda have demonstrated how tourism can become a real pillar of national growth. As Minister Dil was saying here in South Africa, we recorded 10.5 million tourists who came into our country. And when tourists travel, they do not travel empty-handed.

[00:07:44]And when they travel, they do not travel with empty stomachs.

[00:07:50]When they travel, they tra they come in some clothes, but they walk away and go back to their homes with more clothes.

[00:08:00]Their bags are more full. And this is the beauty of what tourism is all about.

[00:08:08]For countries struggling with commodity dependence, tourism is the answer.

[00:08:15]It is able to diversify the economies of countries.

[00:08:21]If for instance your economy is more focused on commodities as many of our countries on the continent are, tourism can give a country an avenue, a new avenue to grow the economy and it becomes possible as I will outline in a minute. So economic diversification becomes an easier path that countries can take.

[00:08:54]But it requires focus. It requires boldness as Premier Dulli was saying. It requires a country that will directly focus on seeing tourism as a growth platform.

[00:09:13]Compared for instance with other industries like mining and oil sectors which are more industrially based and benefits broadly the economy. Tourism distributes economic activity across communities.

[00:09:32]It is able to draw in ordinary people in the community to participate as tourists flock in therefore it opens more opportunities for everyone.

[00:09:48]Everyone then can become economically active. Tourism is beneficial to the fortunes of a country in that it has mass employment potential as a sector.

[00:10:02]Most tourism subsectors are labor intensive because it creates jobs and it is also able to develop multiple skills but also to upskill those who may well have had skills earlier. For instance, as in hotels, hotels can be built around the tourism prospect.

[00:10:28]And this city, this metroini Durban particularly is a clear example of how tourism has been able to draw in investors who can build hotels right on the beach because the climate and the environment for tourism has been improved.

[00:10:53]Earlier some two years ago, this metropolitan city faced its own challenges.

[00:11:01]Challenges of governance, challenges of neglect of the metro and business people got together. Business people got together with government people and they drew the president in and we set up the presidential working group. No sooner had we set up that group which started working at a multistakeholder level that we started seeing Durban beginning to see great development and I forever remember meeting with the business people here saying that Mr. President now that a better climate for investment is being open particularly in tourism we will now revamped our hotels. We will now build new hotels as it is now on the seabboard here in KZDAN. Hotels are springing up.

[00:12:04]They are springing up because this province and my compliments go to the premier.

[00:12:12]Hotels are springing up because the mayor has also taken charge of the possibilities that are here. They are springing up because we are creating a conducive climate.

[00:12:28]And later I'll talk a little bit more about how for instance conservation has also contributed to Durban becoming what it is now. We've always said that Durban is the true maker of tourism in South Africa and indeed there are many other cities on our continent that are the makers of tourism. Tour operators come to the four quickly. Transport providers, farmers become part of the tourism ecosystem and cultural performers.

[00:13:07]For instance, the young boys like the the Drakensburg boys choir of this tourism effort that we are involved in. Crafts people, event managers, conservation workers, people who can market our tourism offerings right across the continent, the digital marketers and aviation and logistics workers as well. So this demonstrates that tourism is a multi- multi-focused industry that we all need to take seriously.

[00:13:48]Importantly, tourism creates opportunities also for youth employment.

[00:13:56]Young people can easily be brought in and be trained and be part of this exciting industry. Womenowned businesses and we are finding a lot of womenowned businesses who see opportunities in tourism. the informal sector participation.

[00:14:19]Those who are able to sell artifacts who are able to make offerings of very unique items that they are able to sell and people living with disabilities also participate in this type of industry. This is especially important in Africa, our continent, where unemployment, particularly young people, is one of our continent's greatest challenges.

[00:14:49]A safari lodge in a remote area offers support in a number of countries on our continent.

[00:14:58]Here in South Africa, safari lodges are set up in remote areas in Kenya, in Namibia, in Lutu and in various parts of our continent.

[00:15:12]And that leads to local food being made on offer. Security services are part of the whole offering.

[00:15:23]Fuel providers, road maintenance and community cooperatives as well. So this the multiplier effects of tourism are quite substantial and it is a sector that we as Africans must seek to own.

[00:15:42]But the other important thing about tourism is the rural development and spatial inclusion aspect of it which becomes a very important economic development driver. Now tourism has the unique ability to bring economic activity into the rural areas and the undeveloped areas. And we all know that investors often want to go to the bright lights.

[00:16:13]They often want to go to areas where there's much better infrastructure, where there's better connectivity and tend to ignore the rural areas.

[00:16:24]But sometimes we can find and we should work towards that. Develop our rural areas around tourism offerings and also reconfigure the special development of our countries through tourism. A good example is for instance Johannesburg as well as Suetto. Soto was built as a dometry. It was just a place that the apartate government built and developed just to dump black people. So the black people should just be there and they should be a source of labor to come and work in Johannesburg city. And now of late so is now developing as a tourism attraction. For instance, Villaazi street where the Nobel laureates Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Desmond Tutu lived. On that street, Villaazi Street, it has become the most popular street in the whole of Suetto and possibly the only street in the world where to two Nobel laureates have lived. Many people now go to Suetto to that precinct and it is quite possible to think of other precincts, think of other areas. It requires packaging. It requires marketing and the spatial development of a country like South Africa which has an ugly history can begin to be changed around so that tourists don't only always throng to sancton or to places like Cape Town. So where traditional industrialization may be difficult, we should be able to go to more rural areas and this can manifest through yes safari economies, coastal tourism and heritage and cultural tourism roots. Our traditional leaders, Our traditional leaders are now on a high path of wanting to develop heritage sites where they live, where the kings and queens of our country lived and continue to live and where historical battles were fought. And that is where the tourists will go to. For instance, with the battle of Isanduan, with the nine wars that were forc fought in the eastern cape over a 100redyear period on how Macad in the northern uh part of our country in Limpopo defeated the aparate uh invaders and how a number of other areas on our continent can be transformed to be real tourist attractives attractions.

[00:19:34]the mountains of our country, the mighty rivers of our continent.

[00:19:39]This can reduce pressure on the major cities by creating all these areas and bring about rural incomes. Local entrepreneurs can also be developed like we are seeing in Suto. The people who are doing business in Vilagazi street are all local entrepreneurs.

[00:20:01]They are all people who've been trading in the township and now their businesses are becoming much more accessible to all and we can also develop more communityowned enterprises. Now countries like Botswana for instance used high value ecoourism to generate rural empowerment while preserving their ecosystems.

[00:20:29]And in South Africa, provinces such as Limpopo, Pumalanga, Guazulunatal and Western Cape have also taken steps to derive substantial economic activity of tourism corridors linked to nature, to culture as well as to heritage. Now conservation and environmental protection must also be aligned to tourism as they can gain economic value from conservation.

[00:21:02]Now here in KZN that is being used to good effect and in a number of areas as well wildlife areas can become financially vulnerable u viable and we can also through involving communities communities need to see the benefit from conservation years ago I became associated with an organization that's doing tremendous work on our continent which is called African Parks and African Parks has developed the absolutely wonderful capability of identifying parks conservation parks on our continent and some of them that have gone derelict that are no longer functioning. They go in there and then agree with the government, mobilize communities around the park and that gets the communities involved in the activities on the park. Poaching stops, animals reappear and regenerate and they as a community also get a viable livelihood. So these are processes that we need to embark upon because through for instance conservation it leads to the protection of our animals, of our rhinos, of our gorillas, of our wetlands and forest ecosystems. For example, gorilla tourism in Rwanda and Uganda generates major conservation revenues while funding surrounding communities in their own development. When communities benefit economically from economic tourism, they are able to be the real guards of their environment and their area because they become stakeholders and we can use tourism as Africa as a continent as a global soft power. This is where for instance Africa can really ramp up its own image and use that as our soft power to demonstrate that apart from everything else we have gods or providenc's continued living gift which is our natural endowment.

[00:23:44]Tourism shapes the way the world looks at our continent. And too often global narratives about Africa tend to focus on all the negative things. They focus on for instance the wars, the coups and the poverty as well as the diseases, the political instability.

[00:24:08]And what what we now need to do is to change that narrative. And tourism is the instrument that we can use.

[00:24:19]It is the color that we can put to our continent. It is the shine that we can put to our continent and showcase our continent to the world. Not only showcasing, you know, the animals, not only showcasing, yes, the mountain, not only mountains, not only showcasing our beautiful deserts, but also showcasing the people, the people of Africa and also showcase showcasing their capability, their knowhow and how well adept they are in running things, in organizing things in building things in making things. So tourism gives us a window to the world. But tourism should also give us a mirror against which we can look at ourselves and ask ourselves are we living up to the dream that we have of this African continent. So the whole continent is replete with all the wonderful endowments and tourism tourism is what is right on the surface.

[00:25:37]It's not like the mines the minerals that are buried below. It is the tourism aspect that can showcase our continent.

[00:25:47]can show the beauty, the sophisticated cultures of our continent, the heritage, the very rich heritage of this continent.

[00:26:00]We are the continent where humanity originated from. That's what we need to showcase. We need to showcase the stories of our continent, the stories of the various kingdoms on our continent.

[00:26:15]We actually need to show the stories and the histories of our people and that we do as a people. I remember I forever remember going to Isandraan to go and hear and see the history of where the battle of Isandana took place and how for the very first time in the history of the British Empire, the British Empire soldiers were defeated by Zulu warriors who were walking barefoot.

[00:26:51]And it was a joy to listen just to the narrative of how that battle was fought and how the British were defeated. Now that is the soft power that we should be using to showcase our continent and the same types of narrative can be built around a whole number of other areas. Now that is what tourists like. Tourists will travel far and are filled just to come and listen to stories like that because the world is hungry for beautiful stories. The world is hungry also to hear horrible stories of the past so that they can also see how their identity is built.

[00:27:42]Yes, hospitality is one of the things that we excel in. I'm hoping that as I go around to the exhibitors, I'll be able to see how the hospitality uh sub sector of the tourism industry is now being developed. It needs to grow.

[00:28:00]It needs to be innovative. It needs to be different. It should not be the same, you know, where you just uh slap dash give people food in the same old way. It should just be innovative and be attractive. Now, Africa possesses extraordinary tourism assets. It possesses the Sahara Desert, the Victoria Falls, the Serenetti, the Kruger National Park, the Table Mountain, the Nile, and rich and ancient civilizations and unique cultural diversity.

[00:28:42]Tourism therefore becomes a form of that soft power and continental showcasing that we should use and therefore it also gives us an opportunity for infrastructure development once we lock our thinking on tourism. We should therefore then begin to come up with infrastructure development projects and these projects should not only be the domain of government. It should also be the domain of the private sector like I saw here in Teeuini where the private sector got together and said we are going to work with government to develop a tee back Durban back to its glory days. It requires yes airports to be built. It requires roads to be built, the rail, the broadband, water systems and energy as well. Now these investments benefit from tourists and citizens and tourists require improved airports.

[00:29:56]One of the things that has made Dubai that everybody wants to go to so successful, it used to be a de desert plane but today it has become such a successful tourist attraction and it is be it has become their only main uh economic tour uh economic driver other than the oil and all that. But they built a world-class airport which pays for itself many many many times over and improving airports improves trade as well as connectivity and improving roads improves local commerce as well as trade. Now countries that successfully grow tourism frequently see broader economic modernization.

[00:30:51]Now for us as Africa, tourism also has another benefit for the Africa continental free trade area. When we know as a continent that we can trade freely on a tariff-free basis, we are then able to become travelers. We are then able to travel from country to country with ease. It will increase travel and the continental the Africa continental free trade area becomes a powerful instrument that will enable us to do that. But we also need to enhance and enable those travel processes. The visa restrictions must be lifted. The border inefficiencies must also go away. They must be removed so that people can travel with ease. And there have been successful initiatives in this area. Things like visa on arrival policies, single African air transport market as well as regional tourism visas. Now these are improvements that are being made moving away from what um uh the president of another country told me that when people used to arrive they used to be asked so many questions about what they want in their country. Now cultural preservation and also the promotion of identity is also very important. the use for instance of indigenous language so that people can get an appreciation of the languages of the past but they can only do that by traveling by going to those areas. For instance, I went to the Northern Cape and I was able to interact with people, the people who speak Nama, who speak uh the the the various old languages of the past. And it was a joy and a marvel. And when all this is managed properly, cultural tourism can strengthen the pan-African consciousness that we have or we aspire to by encouraging Africans to experience one another's societies directly and identities.

[00:33:25]Now we need to look at what are the major challenges that we must overcome as a continent to reach this aspiration of being the tourism hub of the whole world because that is the destination that we must now take to become the tourism hub so that people can see Africa for what it stands for. They must be willing to come back home where we all originated.

[00:33:59]It must be like a homecoming for the whole world to come and see where they originated and we can put together packages that can enable that. So what do we need to do? We need to ensure that there's better connectivity for people across the world to come so that people no longer have to struggle to get where we uh the those offerings are. So at the moment flights into many countries on our continent are expensive, they are limited and they are indirect. To get to a particular place you have to fly to many destinations. And so therefore we need to enhance that safety and stability also needs to be enhanced. There must be a focus by our governments to enhance safety and stability. People must know that when they go to a particular sport for tourism that is a safe corridor and that is a corridor where tourists will not feel unsafe.

[00:35:10]Yes, we need to enhance the political instability in our various countries and the infrastructure gaps must also be attended to. Infrastructure is a great attractor. When infrastructure facilities are built and they look outstanding, the architectural part and so on, they will enhance uh tourism. And we need to focus on infrastructure such as roads and also electricity. And this is a word to all of us as Africans. We need to also attend to visa barriers and Africans often need to focus on all these as governments and we also need to focus on marketing.

[00:36:02]The marketing processes must be well packaged. People must be able to see that we are marketing a real outstanding product because our continent is often marketed as isolated countries rather than a continental destination ecosystem. For instance, I've often said that what we need to do is to market for instance southern Africa collectively and say you can come to Zimbab, you can come to Namibia, then go, you can go to Angola, then go to Namibia, then go to the Western Cape and then go up to KZN or Eastern Cape, thereafter go to Zimbabwe and then to Tanzania. So the packaging on a regional basis needs to be put in place. You can go to central Africa, you can go to East Africa and if we can all get together and package our continent as the real attraction to the world. A number of tourists I have found would love that. And in some areas, tourism revenues can then be distributed once people have bought those types of packages. So what should we do on a strategic basis is that we must encourage intraaffrican tourism, encourage Africans to travel within their own continent and get to know it.

[00:37:43]The temptation is always let's go to Dubai, let's go to Europe. And yet there are so many offerings that we need to have and we therefore need to also enhance the travel ability to be able to travel in the region and lower the tax the the airfares so that people can find it a lot easier to travel. And ladies and gentlemen, if we can do all that, that will also enhance skills development. We will then be able to have better skilled young people. And maybe we should even createmies of tourism minister where it is just a clear academy of tourism where young people can go and learn a whole number of skills and know that there is a tourism university. If we want tourism to be put up there as an important discipline or economic sector, that is what we should do. We often say we should put up a a school for engineering or a university for this and that.

[00:38:56]Tourism is a continuously growing sector in the economy of many of our countries and that is what we should do. The last issue I'd like to touch on is community ownership. We should always make sure that the communities are not left behind. That the people who own this land, our communities become part of the ownership of what we put together. So tourism in my view as your theme suggested it's unlimited growth possibilities and all we need to do is to be bold is to be focused and we will be able to have Africa breaming with a lot of tourist destinations.

[00:39:52]tourism that visitors will come in their millions. They will come back to their original home which is the continent of Africa. Thank you very much.

[00:40:18]Ladies and gentlemen, the president of the Republic of South Africa, Siril Madame Raaposa. Thank you so much for that keynote address, Mr. President. And quite important to what you've mentioned now, Mr. President, is that regional marketing of tourism.

[00:40:35]And perhaps maybe minister the cricket world cup could be an opportunity to give that a try and see how we market and see how we market the region. But to the point that the president also raises is how do I diversify our offering including how do we bring on so-called royal tourism. A couple of months ago when I was with the minister in Indonesia, somebody came up to the minister during our outreach program and said, "Minister, considering the royal houses that we have in South Africa, maybe it is time that we also promote royal tourism and this could be the opportunity to do exactly that." And this also then speaks to the pledge that we're going to be signing today. I'm going to ask the pledge. This is the pledge that we'll be signing today. Mr. President, I'm going to ask you to please come and join me with the minister as we sign the pledge.

[00:41:27]I just quickly want to read what the pledge here says. Today, we pledge to grow Africa's tourism economy, to tell our stories, and together build a better Africa and a better world. Back again to what the president said, what are we saying about ourselves? What are the stories that we say about ourselves? Mr. President, please come and join us on stage. Minister, please come and join me on stage. Premier, please come and join me on stage. MEC Zundi, please come and join us on stage as well. And Mayor Satlaba, please come and join me on stage. Deputy Minister, please come and join me on stage. Deputy Minister of Tourism Meu as well as this one person that very very important as well, our DG, our director general, director general Ver to please come and sign the pledge. And here is the pledge today. We pledge to grow Africa's tourism economy, to tell our stories, and together build a better Africa and a better world. In the meantime, what we'll be playing on the screen is a video of the market of our beneficiaries of Africa's travel in Dhaba. That is what we're going to put up after the signing is done.

[00:43:16]Okay, Premier, I'm going to ask you to choose your spot as well there and put on your signature.

[00:43:34]And then we are going to call on the deputy minister. Deputy minister, your milliondoll signature.

[00:43:47]DG million dollar signature.

[00:43:52]Okay, we'll talk to you. Okay, the top.

[00:43:54]You can go faster.

[00:44:09]Easy.