Limpopo Economic Development, Tourism, and Environmental Affairs MEC, Thabo Mokone says the tourism sector needs to be transformed to ensure that all the industry’s resources are accessible to everyone.
Mokone was speaking on the first day of the two-day provincial Tourism Lekgotla in Polokwane. He says the tourism sector is still controlled by a few people. The conference will cover a variety of issues that directly affect the tourism sector and impact its growth in the province.
Like many other sectors, tourism has been negatively affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. More than 470 000 people lost their jobs in the sector nationally.
Reopening of Polokwane International Airport
Mokone says they want people to be assisted to ensure that tourism resources are accessible to all people. He says the reopening of the Polokwane International Airport next month will boost tourism in the province.
“It’s the right time to talk about tourism, we are talking about the airport, we are saying in September the airport will be up and running. The only thing is that the money the president has pronounced (the issue) has been taken to court. We hope the matter will be resolved soon so that people get that needed rands to uplift their properties because that money was money for transformation. Tourism is still in a few hands, we want to make sure that even Africans have access to those resources to restart the economy.”
Attracting international tourists
Tourism Business Council of South Africa CEO, Tshifhiwa Tshivhengwa, says the country must introduce measures to attract international tourists.
“Limpopo is a vast province, brilliant weather, there’s hasn’t been any one package tour that goes throughout Limpopo for few days, where the international tourists can be able to come through. So, we need to do what we can. There has to be a consistent effort to ensure that the province is uplifted, we cannot have products that do not meet international standards. International tourists are not going to come here. We still have issues with many countries not allowing their citizens to come to South Africa, we need to work on that, airlines must come back.”
The Lekgotla will end tomorrow.
