SA Tourism: COVID-19 brought innovation to domestic tourism

In celebration of World Tourism Day, SA Tourism has announced that the COVID-19 pandemic helped the country to evolve and become more creative.

Despite the halting of global and domestic tourism – when most of the world closed its borders at the height of the outbreak in 2020, SA Tourism’s Thandiwe Mathibela said the agency saw increase in outdoor campaigns and events.

“People are actually wanting to be out because they were feeling restricted [by] the COVID-19 pandemic. So, I think it kind of forced all of us to rethink how we look at tourism. Now more and more, when you go out, you go out to the market. So, tourism is no longer as traditional as what we thought of before,” Mathibela explained.

Happy World Tourism Day, Mzansi! 🇿🇦

Thank you for taking the time to explore our wonderful nation. We wish you many exciting opportunities and a re-thinking of the environment during your travels 🤩.#TravelWiseMzansi #ItsMySouthAfrica pic.twitter.com/tKT5jeUHoz

— Sho’t Left (@ShotLeft) September 27, 2022

The tourism sector was one of the hardest hit by the pandemic with research by the Tourism Business Council of South Africa indicating that the sector was operating at between 30-40% capacity in March 2022 in comparison to 2019.

-EWN

In other news – No baby number 2 for Faith Nketsi any time soon

South African reality TV star Faith Nketsi has opened up about her birthing experience and the trauma it left her with.

The reality star recently took to Twitter to share her experience with fans, saying she was in labour for 26 hours before she held her baby in her arms which made her think twice about baby number two. “26 hours in labour is enough to make me never ever want to go through that again. Maybe I’ll change my mind one day, who knows. Learn More