Locals Encouraged To Visit Establishments To Boost Domestic Tourism

The Tourism Business Council has encouraged patrons to visit establishments during Tourism Month and the festive season to help boost the local economy.

September marks Tourism Month in South Africa, driving expectations for an increase in tourism volumes and international arrivals going into the festive season.

Inflation and successive interest hikes have led to a global cost-of-living crisis negatively affecting the tourism and hospitality sector.

The tourism council is hosting the 3rd Tourism Leadership Conference in the North West Province and the organisations CEO Tshifhiwa Tshivhengwa says the sector is key to the creation of jobs and economic growth.

We are starting to see that our recovery is on a faster pace and we are hoping to get to full recovery at the end of this year in terms of the international arrivals. On domestic, we are seeing a lot of South Africans travelling. They are enjoying their country and, in fact, we have superseded the number of trips we did through Covid and domestic. We are doing very well but again we need to make sure that our domestic strategy is robust and that South Africans do know their country and travel. So we need to continue and make sure that the deals out there, the special and campaign. We want to see those bearing fruit.