The Limpopo Provincial Tourism Association says it is optimistic that the sector will recover soon. The association had a virtual meeting with Tourism Minister, Lindiwe Sisulu on Thursday at a Landmark Lodge in Polokwane in Limpopo.
South Africa has seen a decline in local and international tourists since the COVID-19 pandemic hit the country. The Limpopo Provincial Tourism Association says although the Omicron variant and the international ban had an impact on the sector, domestic tourism and the less stringent COVID-19 regulations brought relief.
The association’s chairperson Gerhard Franken says the tourism relief fund has helped significantly, to revive the industry and keep it afloat. He says the sector is continuing to employ more people despite the pandemic.
“Our province, as I mentioned to the minister earlier today, is definitely vast, years ahead of other provinces that I’ve seen in terms of the recovery. We have seen a huge influx of people going back to work within the tourism industry, people that did lose their jobs prior to COVID. Hotel owners, restaurant owners, cannot cope without the staff. So, they are now re-employing their old staff. Staff is going back to work, they’re getting their jobs back. People are working again. We’re looking at an average of about 65 to 75% occupancy throughout the province, which is a huge number compared to COVID two years ago.”
#SABCNews The tourism stakeholders engagement session is taking place at Protea Hotel in Polokwane, with the minister joining the session virtually, through Zoom. pic.twitter.com/Q6SVig2WGo
— Koketšo Hope Motau (@KoketsoMotau_) January 6, 2022
The National Coordinator for South African Township and Tourism Association, Motsana Mafalo says they have seen some improvement in local tourism during the festive season.
“COVID-19 was quite a nightmare for us, but it then moved swiftly and we saw changes as the festive approached because now we were able to have increased bookings and more participation in local travels. So, what we deal with is mostly allocating rooms and activities for tourists around local destinations. So, within the festive season, we were able to actually improve on our sales. However, the lockdown that was then implemented it then affected us with all cancellations of flights and bookings from the international market. It hit us quite a bit. And from that point, we were able to salvage with domestic travel that we could actually put into our markets and establishments for the period of time.”
Limpopo Women in Tourism Chairperson, Lerato Sekgobela-Mohale, encouraged women into the tourism sector to join the association.
“Limpopo Women in Tourism is a tourism association established by women who are based in Limpopo. It’s a chapter that was started by the national department and Limpopo is another chapter. Our role as Limpopo Women in Tourism, we are advocating for women who are in the tourism industry. We are providing market-to linkage for women who are in the industry, we are the voice actually, of women who are in the tourism industry. We are still inviting women who are not part of women in tourism, to come and link to go to our website, our Facebook page, we are present and we are inviting them to come and join.”
Tourism Minister Lindiwe Sisulu says the government, through the tourism relief fund, will continue to assist companies that were hard hit by the pandemic. The minister says there was a delay in funding because the department was taken to court for its funding distribution model.
