Tourism KwaZulu-Natal celebrated Tourism Month yesterday, on the back of tourism figures that show that the province is making a resounding recovery.
Recently released figures by South African Tourism revealed that in the first six months of 2022 KZN received over 2,2 million domestic trips. This was just shy of the 2,6 million total number of trips for 2021 and indicates that the province is on track to beat last year's number of visitors by a landslide.
Another indicator of recovery is hotel occupancy. In KZN the trend is upward and equal to that of 2019. In July hotels, on average, were 68% full. That is four percent higher than July 2019 before Covid-19 hit SA.
This success was the outcome of a tactical and strategic provincial tourism recovery plan. A concerted effort by the tourism sector and marketing campaigns spearheaded by Tourism KZN.
This year’s World Tourism Day theme Rethink Tourism was appropriate given the recent hardships that the sector has endured, said Nhlakanipho Nkontwana, Head of Department for Economic Development, Tourism and Environmental. He was delivering the speech on behalf of the KwaZulu-Natal MEC EDTEA Siboniso Duma, at the KZN Tourism Month Celebrations held Midmar Resort in Howick.
“The United Nations World Tourism Organization unpacks rethinking tourism as putting people and planet first. Bringing everyone, from governments to businesses and local communities together around a shared vision for a more sustainable, inclusive, and resilient sector. This is the type of tourism that we want to see in KwaZulu-Natal,” he said.
Turning to the Midmar Resort, Nkontwana said that the resort was undergoing a multi-million Rand refurbishment by Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife, which would transform the resort into a multipurpose destination that offers, in addition to its current activities, cycle hire, jet skis, kayaking, inflatables, boat cruises and kiddies play area.
In addition, Ezemvelo had packaged its accommodation with other outdoor activity providers. Through camping and hiking tours Midmar had been listed as a glamping venue by Gauteng Tour Operators, which had seen Midmar record more day visitors and overnighting campers in August than in previous months.
Nkontwana also outlined government programmes to assist in the transformation of the KZN tourism sector.
Transformation in the tourism sector is critical for the success of the tourism sector, he said outlining some of the projects to assist emerging tourism entrepreneurs.
Tourism KZN has reintroduced the Enterprise Development Programme through are calling for small tourism enterprises in the tourism sector to apply for capacity building support. This can be done on www.zulu.org.za.
An EDTEA initiative was hospitality business skills training, targeting Community Trusts managing tourism assets on behalf of communities.
“These are tourism assets built on land returned to communities as part of the land restitution programme. It is critical that these community trusts can ran their businesses well to ensure that the tourism products they manage continue to be productive and sustainable.
“We have seen perfectly productive businesses becoming white elephants when communities fail to run them properly after the land restitution process, and we are determined to ensure that tourism business are not listed as such,” he said.
Nkontwana acknowledged and congratulated the tourism trade for their resilience and enthusiasm to go the extra mile to ensure this vital sector survived. Domestic travellers too were thanked for keeping the tourism sector alive during the most trying of times.
He concluded by encouraging everyone to show the world that KZN was back in business, by taking part in a tourism activity be it a day trip with family and friends, a weekend away or taking a loved one for a fun lunch date.
Pictured here: Midmar Dam in the KZN Midlands was the backdrop for the 2022 KZN Tourism Month Celebration. From left are Sthembiso Madlala TKZN Board Chairman, Sihle Mkhize Acting Chief Executive Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife, Chris Pappas Mayor Umngeni Municipality.