South African Travel & Tourism Summit kicks off

Speaking at the media breakfast organised before the summit, former destination Melbourne CEO, Chris Buckingham expressed his delight to be in South Africa and being able to share knowledge and insight on the concept of how to make urban cities "visitable" and "livable". "I'm looking forward to the summit and believe it will serve as a true national platform, exploring learnings from successful visitor-focused destinations; this bodes well for the future of sustainable tourism development in SA," explained Buckingham.

"For the sustainable growth of the sector and for the benefit of the SA economy, we need to become a winning nation, within a very competitive global sector," said Dawn Robertson, CEO of Gauteng Tourism, co-host of the summit.

"This will require us to shift gear and focus on designing and implementing action plans that will enable the achievement of the grand objectives of the National Tourism Sector Strategy. For us in Gauteng it's about playing that catalytic role in creating a viable environment for products and our regions to market and promote themselves," said Robertson.

A number of plenary addresses and dialogues

The 2013 summit programme comprises a number of plenary addresses and dialogues, including focused tracks, with each focused on developing actionable points with involvement from delegates. The summit will be addressed by, amongst others, the Deputy National Minister of Tourism, Gauteng MEC for Economic Development, CEOs of other provincial tourism agencies and South Africa's leading trend spotters.

The panellists include a broad array of industry and associated specialists and high-profile individuals, including the Gauteng MEC for Transport, the CEO of SAA, the CEOs of Google and Expedia SA, the CEO of Gautrain, the CEO of Mango, the general secretary of SANTACO, leaders from both the National and Gauteng Planning Commissions, the COO and CMO of SA Tourism and senior officials from the National Department of Tourism in South Africa.

Collaborate with leading international destinations

Chris Buckingham, who is set to deliver the keynote address, emphasises the need for the South African tourism sector to collaborate with leading international destinations that have embedded the notion of visitability, which is about deliberately setting up a destination to be visitor focused and take proactive steps in leading the crusade, especially in the African continent. "We need South Africa to be proactive and decisive in making the tourism business everybody's business and government can play an active and stewardship role in that regard," Buckingham stressed.

Accordingly, the summit is also set to be a "a green affair", with a number of initiatives being taken to ensure that delegates' carbon footprints are offset by tangible actions like the use of recyclable material and giving each delegate a tree to plant. A Summit Green Initiative Statement binding all the delegates and participants to the promotion of responsible and sustainable tourism practice will be unveiled at the summit.

For more, go to www.sasummit.net. Follow the summit on Twitter @visitgauteng with #SASummit13.