CHAPTER 9 SUMMARY, CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 274
1.8 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
Tourism is sited in a number of national, provincial and local government strategies and policies as an important economic driver and a tool for local economic development. These policies and strategies include but are not limited to the new growth path (Timothy & Tosun, 2003); Urban Economics Property Limited (2010), Provincial Spatial Economic Development Strategy (KZN-PG, 2005), and various Municipal Integrated Development Plans (IDPs). It is however not clear as to what extent the various tourism related policies and plans have been implemented. The various spheres of government do not take tourism seriously and there are limited
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budgets to implement tourism projects at a national and provincial government whilst some municipalities budget virtually nothing. This is despite having tourism pronounced as a growing economic sector. Weaver & Lawton (2006:2) maintain that tourism is an increasingly widespread and complex activity, which requires sophisticated management to realize its full potential as a positive and sustainable economic, environmental, social and cultural force. The tourism industry is not getting proper attention with regard to planning, coordination and management despite its proven worldwide economic worth.
Tens of millions of workers globally work directly in the tourism industry and many more are employed indirectly resulting to hundreds of millions of people being on the receiving end of tourism activity as they live in what are termed destination areas, in supposed ‘host’ populations (Ryan, 1991; Tribe, 2001; Mason, 2005; Hall, 2005, 2008). There is a need for tourism planners and managers to understand the tourism industry as a system. Tourism planners need to understand, create and maintain relationships between different sectors of the tourism industry. Every public sector tourism official needs to have a comprehensive understanding of tourism planning, management, development and marketing whilst also understanding the relationships between tourists, tourism stakeholders, governments, industry associations, tourism support services, and tourism suppliers.
The study looked at how tourism is planned, coordinated and managed in KwaZulu- Natal. The emphasis was on institutional frameworks and coordinating structures.
These coordinating structures included the national and provincial forums and committees and their influence at a local level. The study provides different perspectives and insights from a wide array of tourism stakeholders including tourism leaders in the public sector, captains of the tourism industry and municipal role players. The study investigates how the numerous tourism stakeholders plan for the development of tourism within KwaZulu-Natal. The emphasis is on how coordination and/ or lack of it in the province impacts on tourism development. The study is also expected to give some insights into the appropriateness of skills possessed by tourism industry managers and the relevance of skills in dealing with critical planning
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issues for improving tourism attractions. Other insights may be related to marketing, infrastructure, products, funding, proper stewardship of nature, socio cultural and economic responsibilities, as well as strengthening positioning, visitor services, alliances, and organisational capabilities of their respective organisations.
The important aspect of the study is the investigation of the various tourism coordinating structures in the province, how they are structured, constituted and representative. The effectiveness of the structures is investigated to identify gaps and advocate for mechanisms that may be devised to bridge those gaps. The study also conducted an in-depth analysis of all the tourism enabling legislation in KwaZulu-Natal. The analysis is intended to verify if the current legislation addresses all the issues of tourism planning, coordination and management. Legislative, tourism structural and institutional framework gaps are expected to be identified.
Loopholes created by legislative, structural and institutional framework gaps were addressed through a number of proposals and recommendations intended to mitigate the negative effects created by such loopholes.
The high level significance of the study is that the new model aimed at improving tourism planning, coordination and management of tourism in KwaZulu-Natal with regard to community involvement was developed. The new model is expected not only to assist KwaZulu-Natal but it should serve as a national guideline in all provinces and other international tourism destinations on how to integrate tourism policy, planning and development at a local level. The new model is also expected to increase the body of knowledge in tourism planning with a practical destination analysis and interpretation of the situation prevailing in KwaZulu-Natal. The analysis of institutional frameworks and inherent organisations governing tourism in KwaZulu- Natal is pivotal in ensuring an inclusive tourism planning and development of the tourism industry in the province. There are a number of tourism committees, forums, steering committees and technical committees dealing with a variety of tourism aspects in the province. Some of these structures are legislated; some were developed by individual organisations out of a need to achieve coordination whilst others are structures developed arbitrarily to deal with a specific tourism issue at a
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particular time. The concern regarding tourism planning in KwaZulu-Natal is whether these institutions and structures pursue a common planning and development agenda to achieve a comparative and competitive tourism destination. This study seeks to establish whether these structures contribute to tourism development.