Cape Town - President
Jacob Zuma on Wednesday became the first African head of state to sign the Global Leaders for Tourism campaign - a joint UN World Tourism Organisation and World Travel and Tourism Council initiative to boost international travel and tourism.
Speaking at the signing ceremony at Tuynhuys, Zuma said South Africa had identified tourism as one of the six "job drivers" in his government's new growth path framework.
"We aim to increase the number of foreign tourist arrivals to South Africa from seven million in 2009, to 15 million by 2020.
"We plan to increase tourism's total contribution to the economy from R189bn in 2009, to R499bn by 2020," he said.
Tourism's contribution to the country's gross domestic product (GDP) had increased from just less than 5% in 1994, to an estimated 7.7% in 2010, and the sector was well positioned to be a leading avenue to address unemployment.
"More significantly, this sector has become a fertile environment for entrepreneurs and small, medium and micro enterprises," Zuma said.
Speaking at the signing, Tourism Minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk said international tourism forecasts showed the sector was set to soar.
"Two years ago, there were 935 million tourists [internationally], and in just 11 years, this figure will double to 1.6 billion international arrivals," he said.
World Travel and Tourism Council president David Scowsill said international tourism was big business, larger than the automotive sector and only just behind the banking industry.
"The [international] travel and tourism industry comes to nine percent of [global] GDP - 258 million jobs and six trillion dollars. It is a huge industry.
This figure was expected to grow to nine trillion dollars over the next decade.
Zuma said government also wanted to increase the number of domestic tourists in South Africa from 14.6 million in 2009, to 18 million by 2020.
"Most importantly, we want to create 235 000 new tourism jobs by 2020. We will do everything possible to promote and grow the tourism sector so that we can achieve these developmental goals."
He noted the signing ceremony was taking place on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum on Africa, which got underway in Cape Town earlier in the day.
"We encourage the WEF participants to not only focus on the important business of WEF, but to also find time to explore the beautiful sights that our country has to offer," he said.
Zuma is set to address the forum later on Wednesday.