South Africa:- Tourism Ministry Restrategize on Marketing To International And Domestic Tourists
South Africa opened up its skies, and borders for international travel on 1st October, which was the start of major airlines to fly in after 7 months of restrictions.
Minister of Tourism, Mmamoloko Kubayi-Ngubane at the RRP Debate, National Assembly, remarked on steps and strategies on how the government is planning to revive tourism with marketing strategies that will focus on international and domestic market.
One of the key interventions that the plan has identified to be the key driver of the economy is the resuscitation of tourism, which has been hard hit by the pandemic. For the past decade, the tourism sector has been one of the best performing sectors of the economy here at home and the world over. However, with the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, the tourism sector’s supply and demand market came to a standstill for most of this year. Thus, a concerted effort has to be put in place to ensure that the sector recovers at a rapid rate. Our plan for recovery had envisaged that the tourism recovery will start with domestic tourism, then followed by regional tourism which is mostly through our land borders, and the broader international tourism.
We are already implementing our aggressive domestic marketing strategy, encouraging South Africans to travel their country since the end of the lockdown. The response to these campaigns has been overwhelming, South Africans have responded beyond expectations. The feedback I have been receiving from the sector is that domestic tourism has helped to put many tourism business back into operation and many jobs are being recovered in the sector. As we gradually open up our borders for international travel in accordance with the global pandemic risk levels, we will complement this with an aggressive international marketing strategy that will be implemented in partnership with the private sector. More business and jobs will be recovered when international travel goes to full recovery.
Minister of Tourism, Mmamoloko Kubayi-Ngubane
You can read more of the remarks from the Minister here
