Tag: tourism

Sol Kerzner, the controversial and charismatic business tycoon, once dominated the Southern African tourism landscape. He left an indelible mark by developing dream destinations like Sun City and The Palace. Furthermore, he created the Atlantis developments in the Bahamas and Dubai.

The standardisation of port-of-entry visa requirements heralds positive change at Home Affairs. We encouraged by the work being done by Minister Leon Schreiber and his team at the Department of Home Affairs (DHA). This includes the launch of the remote working visa scheme (officially gazetted on 9 October) and the new immigration directives. These changes bring welcome reforms to the country's immigration policy.

South Africa's hospitality industry is seeing a shift from traditional leisure-based tourism to experience-based tourism, focused on providing tourists with unique, authentic life-enriching experiences.

The integration of finance and technology, known as fintech, has revolutionised traditional banking and payment systems, transforming how we live, work and travel. Similarly, travel technology, or traveltech, has empowered travellers with convenient booking platforms and personalised experiences.

Tourism is a multi-sensory experience and South Africa, with its abundant wonders, exemplifies this perfectly. But in reality, more than 60,000 South African citizens grapple with hearing impairments and are unable to experience our country through all five senses.

Business travel is an art that demands attention to detail. Ensuring a comfortable and hassle-free stay begins right when you start booking your hotel room. Yet, many critical factors are frequently overlooked.

The pursuit of sleep is big business. In fact, Statista predicts that the global sleep industry will be worth 585 billion US dollars by 2024. We’re talking mattresses, luxury bedding, pillows (the pillow market alone was valued at about 15.6 billion US dollars worldwide back in 2019), block-out blinds, soundproofing, supplements and apps.

Pre-COVID-19, travel and tourism contributed 6.9% to South Africa’s gross domestic product, declining to 3.7% in 2020. Similarly, the number of jobs created by the sector dropped by 32.4% from 1.5 million to 987,000. It was, according to Statistics SA, bigger than agriculture, utilities and construction.

Business travellers are adding a leisure component to their trips, as a way to have a holiday whilst working. It also presents a great opportunity for property managers to provide a memorable experience or encourage travellers to join their loyalty programmes, both of which will drive returning customers.

Business travel will have an important role to play as the global economy recovers from the massive knock-on effect of COVID-19. The US and the Eurozone experienced record-breaking declines of 32.9% and 40% in GDP, respectively, in the second quarter. And, although the extent of South Africa’s economic downturn has yet to be established with the official GDP figures only being released in a few weeks, we know the impact in our country has been severe.