Durban - WITH the Easter Weekend less than two weeks away, KwaZulu-Natal is positioning itself as the place to be.
Economic Development, Tourism and Environmental Affairs MEC Ravi Pillay was on a walkabout on Monday at San Lameer resort as part of efforts to boost tourism in the province by highlighting some of the tourist attractions in KZN after it had been severely affected by Covid-19-related restrictions.
“I think Covid awakened us to the absolute jewels we have in our province. One of the things we want is for local people to rediscover their own background tourism,” he said.
Pillay said he wanted people who visited the province or travelled around it to be create “Covid bubbles” where travellers would ensure they were Covid-19 compliant and safe.
“We are looking forward to the Easter season and the July winter season. We’re expecting about 80% bookings and we think that will be the start of the (tourism) revival,” he said.
The MEC, who is from the South Coast, said there were many tourist attractions in the area and he had visited many of them.
Ugu South Coast Tourism chief executive Phelisa Mangcu said: “People are looking to make up for lost time, to make great memories with the family by doing something new and different. I encourage South Coast citizens to start experiencing their destination and be tourists in their own homes.’’
Federated Hospitality Association of South Africa East Coast Region chairperson Brett Tungay said the leisure industry and domestic tourism took a large knock during the hard lockdown. He said these industries have made a 70 to 80% recovery to being back at what they were before Covid-19, but the numbers for tourists from overseas were virtually zero.
Tungay said when it came to commercial and business travel, the situation had been about 30 to 40% of normal.
He said another problem was planning, as many businesses did not know what the future held. He said at present, some businesses were opening up again and had brought back workers who had been furloughed during the hard lockdown.
He said the tourism industry had been “robust” but had taken strain. He hoped there would be no restrictions during the coming Easter Weekend and pointed to how compliant the industry had been, following Covid-19 regulations.
Tungay said the Federated Hospitality Association of South Africa encouraged people to travel as this created jobs.
“Every stay at a hotel and B&B is a job saved,” he said.
Daily News