South African tourism jobs could double in the next 10 years to one million, Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka said in Johannesburg on Tuesday.

Speaking when she opened a new tourism school at the University of Johannesburg, Mlambo-Ngcuka said some key steps would be needed to achieve this goal such as building a tourism satellite account with Statistics South Africa and a tourism incentives review.

She noted that the exact figure for direct jobs in tourism was 539,000 last year. This itself represented a doubling over a decade, she said, adding: "we have to compete with other countries, some with many years of experience in the field, to maintain our international and domestic tourism numbers."

"Last year, tourism contributed more than half a million direct permanent jobs to the economy. However, there are huge challenges. For instance, training and development remain challenges we have to overcome as we aim towards becoming more globally competitive," she said.

South Africa now attracts 6.7 million international tourists and about 8 million domestic leisure trips each year.

Source: Xinhua