Western Cape Tourism and Economic Opportunities Minister, Beverly Schäfer, has called on members of the public to help to create an environment in which tourism can grow in the province.
Wednesday marks World Tourism Day, which aims to encourage tourism worldwide.
Schäfer says crime and social instability can jeopardise the benefits of tourism. She says both local and international tourists contribute immensely to the growth of the local economy.
“In the Western Cape tourism is one of our major job creators creating more than three hundred thousand direct and indirect job opportunities by committing to using more local suppliers and services and fair labour practices the tourism industry can show that tourism is also economically and sociably responsible.”
At the annual World Travel Market in London, one of the largest tourism trade shows on the global calendar, South Africa’s Tourism Minister Derek Hanekom says “I see 2019 as a big growth year for the UK, altogether I should say for international tourism arrivals, next year I think it’s going to be a bumper year, but for the UK in particular, because we had the back slide, so we’re going to recover and recover, I believe, quite spectacularly.”
Getting visitor numbers back to their 2016 record levels is the preoccupation of many after a dip, particularly from the UK, amid concern about Cape Town’s water shortages and changes to regulations on children traveling. -Additional reporting by Catherine Drew
