Tourism Ministers from the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region recently approved the SADC Tourism Programme for 2020-2030. It was designed as a guideline for the development of a sustainable tourism industry and to remove the barriers to tourism growth.
“The vision of the programme for 2030 is that growth in cross-border, multi-destination travel in SADC will exceed average global tourism growth levels,” said Domingos Gove, SADC Director of the Food, Agriculture and Natural Resources Directorate, under which the SADC Tourism Coordination Unit is housed.
Objectives include:
- Exceeding global growth levels in tourism receipts to and within the region,
- Broadening the spread of regional arrivals and receipts, and
- Effectively increasing the length of stay and return visits by visitors to and within the region,
- Fostering an enabling environment for tourism growth and development through the harmony of policies.
The programme’s strategic goals are to:
- Stimulate visitor movement and flows to and within the region
- Improve and defend the tourism reputation and image of the region
- Develop tourism in Trans-Frontier Conservation Areas
- Improve the quality of visitor experiences and satisfaction levels
- Maximise tourism partnerships and collaboration.
- Improve engagement across multiple sectors due to the cross-cutting nature of the tourism industry.
These, among other key considerations, will set the stage for collaborative regional engagement that will work toward addressing bottlenecks to regional tourism growth and development with a view to establishment of an enabling environment for the SADC tourism industry to thrive.
