The Zulu Kingdom will come alive this September when South Africa celebrates Tourism Month.
And while there is much to do in KwaZulu-Natal from its balmy beaches, world heritage sites, luxury safari destinations and delectable cuisine, Minister of Tourism Mmamoloko Kubayi - Ngubane has a mission to create jobs within the tourism space.
Speaking at the Tourism Month launch at the Drakensberg Southern Sun Resort last week, Ngubane said that tourism has the potential to boost SA’s economic growth and improve job creation, which requires an inclusive tourism sector.
“The creation of jobs and business opportunities is in line with SA Tourism’s ‘We Do Tourism’ movement, which aims to make tourism everyone’s business as this industry intersects every area of our lives. It gets the whole country to rally behind the tourism industry, through demonstrating the far-reaching impact of the tourism value chain,” she said.
Ngubane also mentioned that there should be a development and drive for an aggressive marketing campaign for both domestic and international markets.
She said this will involve target marketing to countries with potential for our international market and focused campaigns.
%%%twitter https://twitter.com/mmKubayiNgubane?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@mmKubayiNgubaneat the Tourism Month media launch at Drakensberg, KwaZulu-Natal. https://t.co/mplijwXwLt #TourismMonth19 #TourismMonth2019 #TourismMonth #WorldTourismDay2019 #WeDoTourism #DoKZN @TourismKZN #TravelWeekSA #GottaLuvKZN @edtea_kzn pic.twitter.com/9rZdMqjITS
— Dept of Tourism (@Tourism_gov_za)
Member of the Executive Council for Economic Development, Tourism and Environmental Affairs, Nomusa Dube - Ncube said KZN has changed from a gloomy hopeless province, at war with itself, to become an attractive destination for investors and leisure-seekers who cannot wait to set foot on their sandy shores.
Ncube said in 2014, tourism’s contribution to the provincial Gross Domestic Programme (GDP) was at R9-billion, and by 2017 it had grown by four, twenty-five percent to R9.4-billion.
“While the country has been experiencing an economic downturn, tourism is one of the sectors that have been steadfast and has not shed any jobs. Our view in the influx of international and national tourists will create more jobs and in the process - we will move closer to achieving our targets of creating approximately twenty seven thousand permanent jobs and attract R35.2 billion from the private sector,”she said.
World Tourism Day will be hosted at the Nelson Mandela Capture Site in Howick on September 27 2019.