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Tourism sector ready to welcome domestic, international tourists: Kubayi-Ngubane

18 September 2020, 12:33 PM |

SABC | @SABCNews

SA Tourism CEO Sisa Ntshona says the tourism industry is slowly picking up as most lodges across the country are fully booked on weekends.

Image: File: SABC News

SA Tourism CEO Sisa Ntshona says the tourism industry is slowly picking up as most lodges across the country are fully booked on weekends.

Tourism Minister Mmamoloko Kubayi-Ngubane says the sector is ready to welcome both domestic and international tourists while fully adhering to the lockdown regulations.

Friday marks the official launch of tourism month in the Tsitsikamma area, one of the tourist attractions along the Garden Route.

In the video below, tourism industry bleeds due to COVID-19:

The Minister will also hand over the Big Tree Project which will see the launch of a 1000-year-old tree.

Kubayi-Ngubane has encouraged South Africans to continue supporting local tourism initiatives.

“We are in the Eastern Cape with the Premier and the MEC, to say we are here to receive you as the citizens. As the President said international borders will be open, we will also be able to receive international travellers as well. But one thing is to check in terms of the state of readiness in compliance with the protocols and I am happy that everyone is wearing their masks, and everyone is sanitising and screening and happening as per directions.”

SA Tourism CEO Sisa Ntshona says the tourism industry is slowly picking up as most lodges across the country are fully booked on weekends.

President Cyril Ramaphosa earlier announced that from October 1, travel in and out of South Africa for business and leisure will be reopened, however with conditions.

In the video below, international travel ban lifted under Level 1:

Ntshona says they’re still concerned about city hotels that are still struggling.

“The conferencing space is still stagnant, there is very few conferences happening at the moment. If you look at the leisure side, we’ve seen pent up demand and activities and lodges are just full basically on weekends. We just did a quick focus on the long weekend coming up ahead and we’ve seen great capacity. What is under pressure though is city centre hotels, we are not seeing good corporate activity resuming. City hotels are really struggling compared to leisure targeted facilities.”