Tag: tourism

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.

The global COVID-19 pandemic has made its presence felt in South African retail and consumer-focused businesses, especially in tourism and hospitality, but the full impact on earnings, cash flow and employment will last far longer than the initial lockdown.

A message from the South African Tourism CEO, Sisa Ntshona, on the current state of the tourism industry in light of the COVID-19 Coronavirus impact on the tourism industry.

In 2018, 1.4 billion people crossed an international border to take a holiday, and this number is set to rise with an estimated 5 billion people travelling internationally by 2050. SA tourism must work to capitalise on the social megatrends that are influencing how and why people travel, and what they look for when they do.

A refreshingly practical guide to evaluating captive wildlife attractions and activities will be unveiled following extensive research undertaken by us, which represents South Africa’s tourism private sector. While the guide is comprehensive in its assessment of animal interactions in the tourism industry, and is the first to pin its approach on a locally-born ethical framework, its utility peaks in an interactive tool – an easy-to-use ‘decision tree’ which will allow tourism bodies, tour operators and tourists to assess animal interaction operations, and make informed decisions to support ethically sound and responsible operators in South Africa.