South African Tourism (SAT) on Wednesday said it would soon unveil a national tourism code of conduct to promote inclusiveness in tourism activities.

Ms Debbie Damant, head, visitors experience, SAT, disclosed this during the ongoing Africa’s Travel Indaba, in Durban.

Ms Damant, who spoke during a panel discussion with the theme, “Inclusivity in Tourism”, said the code of conduct was necessary because of lack of inclusivity in the sector.

She said that for South Africa to be fully positioned as a competitive brand, inclusiveness would have to be in place.

She noted that the South African government would ensure that every South African and visitor gets committed to the code once launched.

“The code of conduct will give equal treatment to visitors in all tourism outlets within the country, putting the physically challenged, aged and the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer (LGBTQ community) into consideration.

“We want to ensure that our tourism destinations are fully inclusive of everyone, regardless of religion and culture.

“We are all human beings, we all deserve to be given equal opportunity to explore. Those who are aged, or disabled will be given opportunity. We will treat everyone equally and not be allergic to anyone.

“I want everyone within the tourism value chain to take conscious efforts to be more human and desist from being allergic to humanity,” she said.

Ms Damant noted that lack of inclusivity had affected tourism growth over the years.

She said to fully implement the code of conduct, collaborations would be necessary with important tourism stakeholders, as well as reprogramming the brains of every individual and proper education.

Earlier, Thami Kotlolo, founder of Thami Dish, raised concerns over the treatment of the LGBTQ community in the tourism space, even when majority of them were practitioners in the industry.

Ms Kotlolo said there was a need for individuals to be degendered while everyone enjoys equal service at bars, restaurants, hotels, clubs and all other tourism outlets.

He expressed displeasure over Africans being homophobic.

“We need to ensure that the rights of the LGBTQ community are not violated.

“Most people say that they cannot be serviced by a queer individual, we are indirectly creating a traumatised society and we need to focus on creating a safe environment for the LGBTQ.

“We need to degender everything, we should have “Hello Everyone” and not “Hello Ladies and Gentlemen”, we should call people by their names and not Mr or Mrs,” he said.

Also, Shama Nathoo, founder of Universal Accessibility Hub, spoke on the need for the South African Government to stop making tourism policies but work more on the implementation of existing policies.

Ms Nathoo noted that this would guarantee an improvement in the sector going forward.

(NAN)