Five-year Plan to Create Tens of Thousands of NMB Tourism Jobs

Statement by Retief Odendaal MPL – DA NMB Mayoral Candidate:

A DA government will put tourism at the centre of Nelson Mandela Bay’s economic growth.

We will make tourism precincts safer, fix neglected infrastructure, unlock private investment, and support township tourism.
Nelson Mandela Bay needs a government with a plan to turn tourism assets into investment and jobs.

Today, in Gqeberha, I announced the Democratic Alliance’s five-year, eight-point plan to create an additional 25 000 to 30 000 direct and indirect tourism jobs in Nelson Mandela Bay.

A DA-government will make tourism one of the central pillars of Nelson Mandela Bay’s economic growth strategy, with a clear objective of increasing visitor numbers, increasing visitor spend, and extending the average length of stay towards four nights.

Our plan includes:

1. Make our tourism precincts safe: We will establish a permanent, dedicated Metro Police Tourism Safety Unit, building on existing tourism safety initiatives and extending visible tourism policing across the metro’s key visitor precincts. At least 200 high-tech cameras will be installed in tourism and crime hotspots; the Joint Operations Centre will operate 24/7; and cooperation among the municipality, SAPS, private security, tourism businesses, and communities will be strengthened.
2. Fix tourism infrastructure: We will launch a dedicated tourism infrastructure programme focused on our beaches, beachfront, resorts, public amenities, heritage sites, and other key tourism nodes.
3. Unlock private investment: Where appropriate, we will competitively outsource resort management to capable private operators, with firm requirements for investment, maintenance, local employment, and SMME participation.
4. Put township tourism to work: We will establish a dedicated Township Tourism and Business Support Programme to help local entrepreneurs establish and grow tourism businesses.
5. Build a 365-day tourism economy: We will grow Nelson Mandela Bay beyond traditional beach tourism by developing adventure, marine, sports, heritage, cultural, township, food, eco-, and wildlife tourism, while establishing a tourism ambassador programme with industry partners to help promote the city and its tourism offering.
6. Connect NMB to the world: We will work with airlines, the airport, the port, tourism businesses, and government partners to improve connectivity, grow domestic and international tourism, and develop the city’s cruise tourism potential.
7. Market NMB aggressively: We will launch an aggressive marketing campaign positioning Nelson Mandela Bay as a destination of choice for domestic and international visitors.
8. Create a tourism jobs and skills pipeline: Working with tourism businesses, TVET colleges, and universities, we will expand training, internships, and employment pathways in hospitality, catering, tour guiding, events, adventure tourism, digital marketing, and tourism entrepreneurship.

Where the DA governs, we clean our towns, fix infrastructure, and create real conditions for job creation through tourism. Cape Town has demonstrated what is possible when a DA-government treats tourism as an economic growth sector, invests in destination marketing and infrastructure, works with the private sector, and relentlessly pursues new visitors and investment. Nelson Mandela Bay has the assets to do the same.

Nelson Mandela Bay has the beaches, wildlife, culture, heritage, people, and natural assets to become one of South Africa’s great tourism cities. What it has lacked is a government with a plan to turn those assets into investment and jobs. A DA-government will get Nelson Mandela Bay working for all by making tourism work.