The welcoming address delivered by Alderman James Vos at that Africa Halal Week Conference 2019

SPEECH BY THE CITY’S MAYORAL COMMITTEE MEMBER FOR ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITIES AND ASSET MANAGEMENT.

The following is an excerpt from the welcoming address that was delivered by Alderman James Vos at the Africa Halal Week Conference 2019:

It is an honour to represent the City of Cape Town at Africa Halal Week 2019.

It gives me great pleasure to welcome you to the Events Capital of the world. We are certainly very delighted that you chose to host this prestigious event in our beautiful and diverse city.

It is my task to officially welcome you to Cape Town, however, I cannot omit to speak about the exciting progress and milestones the City has achieved in working with the industry role players.

Cape Town is a melting pot of colour, cuisine and culture. We pride ourselves in being an inclusive city, where the Muslim culture is part of this city’s social fabric and embedded in our city’s unique character.

We have a rich Muslim heritage with the Cape Malay community that makes up a quarter of Cape Town’s population.

As a City, we are committed to attracting more Muslim travelers as we are a Halal friendly destination.

Together with the City’s destination marketing agency, Cape Town Tourism, we are implementing numerous strategies to grow this industry.

Studies have revealed that the Muslim visitor arrivals, which were estimated to be 121 million in 2016, will grow by over 100% to 230 million arrivals by 2026.

It is projected that the Halal travel sector’s contribution to the global economy is set to be an astronomical 220 billion US dollars by 2020.

This is one of the reasons Cape Town Tourism partnered with the Crescent Rating Authority, which is the world’s leading authority on Muslim-friendly travel services. Crescent Rating’s unique rating and accreditation service is the globally recognised premier independent standard for the Muslim travel market; the ideal Halal assurance solution for non-Muslim countries (rating model for Hotels and Restaurants); and HalalTrip is the world’s leading online travel platform catering specifically to the needs of the Muslim traveler.

We have conducted considerable research into this sector in a bid to gain further insights.

We needed to understand the current status of the service and facilities offered by travel and tourism players in Cape Town that are specifically targeting the Muslim traveler.

We followed the following methodology:

• Conducted an online survey targeting the travel industry
• Conducted a travel services staff online assessment
• On site visits to some of Cape Town’s travel and tourism services and facilities
• Facilitated workshops and group discussions with industry role players

What we discovered:

• Most respondents agree attracting Muslim tourists will help Cape Town prosper as a destination
• Most respondents do not have a clear understanding of this market segment
• Most respondents have a very basic understanding of Halal concepts
• There is a notable confusion about Halal food and the use of the term “Halal-friendly food”

How we responded:

• We published the Halal Tourism Basic Guidelines and Glossary
• The document holds all the relevant terms and basic guidelines in one place that helps service providers to understand the concepts, terms and definitions and to navigate the sector better
• Educated local stakeholders about the Muslim travel market and the needs of the Muslim traveller
• We collaborated with Crescent Rating Authority to hold In-destination Workshops to increase skills and competencies
• We established the first-ever Chef Exchange Programme in partnership with Crescent Rating to train chefs on Halal gourmet cuisine

What’s coming in the future:

• We will roll out a Muslim-friendly rating drive to increase the number of Muslim-friendly products especially in the Hotel and Restaurant sector
• We will publish a Cape Town Muslim-friendly Visitors Guide to create visitor comfort and the ease of travelling, which will make the discovery and trip planning phase easier for those looking for a Muslim-friendly travel experience in our city

I would like to conclude by saying that we especially welcome the more than 24 international buyers joining this year’s event from countries including Mozambique, the United States of America, Singapore, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Oman, India, the United Kingdom, Kenya, Tanzania and Ghana.

More than 63 exhibitors have been confirmed, covering a range of sectors, including Islamic banking, modest fashion, film and media promotion, cuisine and investment and trade.

It gives me great pleasure to welcome all delegates to Cape Town, your proud hosts. As the largest metropole in the Western Cape, we pride ourselves on being the go-to-city in Africa and globally for tourism and business opportunities.

Thank you.