The Deputy Minister of Tourism Ms Tokozile Xasa, The Executive Mayor of Nelson Mandela Bay, Dr Danny Jordaan, Cller Zukile Jodwana and Ms Mandlakazi Skefile, CEO of Nelson Mandela Bay Tourism were a few of the esteemed guests who engaged with tourism stakeholders in Nelson Mandela Bay on Thursday, 14th April 2016.
The stakeholder engagement proceeded to unlock and discuss the impact of unlocking the economic potential of South Africa’s oceans through operation Phakisa. The blue economy, also referred to as the ocean economy, is described as a marine based economic development that will lead to improved human well being and social equity. It includes reframing oceans, which account for almost 71% of the earth’s surface, as “development spaces” that are subject to special planning.
One of the key growth areas identified within the NDP 2030 is coastal and marine tourism, which was also identified by the 2050 Africa’s Integrated Maritime (AIM) strategy as promising but under appreciated. This, despite the tremendous power that tourism can unlock – tourism creates jobs and opportunities for entrepreneurs, reduces poverty, promotes stability and preserves culture and heritage and builds global connections. It is estimated that tourism contributed an average of 9% to South Africa’s GPD and it supports 1.4 million job opportunities in the country.
With the demand for ocean cruises having increased by 77% over the past decade and due to the improved infrastructure in our ports, the number of cruise liners docking onto our shores has increased drastically. Since the increase of cruise liner dockings to Port Elizabeth in the recent year it has seen the Nelson Mandela Bay local economy benefit about R25 million. The latest docking ship manifesto shows that 25 vessels – carrying about 14 400 passengers and 6000 crew members – were booked to docked in the Port Elizabeth harbour between November 2015 and April 2016.This is up from the November 2014 to April 2015 which only saw about 15 liners dock in the Bay.
Nelson Mandela Bay Tourism CEO, Ms Mandlakazi Skefile said: “An opportunity exists for us to grow our partnerships with the cruise liner operators and ground handlers to grow their tourism offering within Nelson Mandela Bay and possibly increase the amount of time the visitors spend in the area – thus increasing the economic spend. It is important that we showcase to them the diverse offerings that Nelson Mandela Bay offers including the Big 7 game reserves which integrate the big five with marine life to include the great white shark and the southern white whale and more of our beautiful coastline.
Ms Skefile further confirms that additional world class opportunities such as being the water sport capital of the world, being awarded 3 Blue Flag status beaches and being nominated as one of the top ports in the country for the world travel Awards benefits Nelson Mandela Bay as an ocean destination with tremendous amounts of potential. Nelson Mandela Bay has tourism attractions and activities unique to the area on world class standards which attract deep sea diving and snorkelling enthusiast as well as world renowned surfing and beach sport competitions such as Ironman Africa which attracts more than 600 international athletes per race.
Nelson Mandela Bay Tourism was proud to also provisionally announce, an exciting new development that will position tourism to add the unique and proud achievement of the destination being the Dolphin Bottlenose Capital of the World. The Bay hosts the largest schools of Indo-Pacific Bottlenose Dolphins on the planet. There are regular sightings of pods of over 600 individuals. Algoa Bay also hosts beautiful reefs, the largest pods of bottlenose dolphins in the world and hundreds of whales coming to give birth here every year.
While there is no doubt that our pristine coastline is a much loved national treasure, there is much work that still needs to be done to ensure that the blue economy is sufficiently up and running to be able to work at addressing the economic needs of the country while at the same time remaining a natural and protected national resource for future generations.
NMB Communications
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