The future of tourism in South Africa

The 2010 soccer world cup is almost upon us, we all know that everything and everone will be busy over that particular period as visitors rent every accommodation option that is available, but what about the sustainability, what about our future, how do we capitalise on the momentum that this could create.

It has been well published that South African tourism is already our biggest industry, yes, even bigger than gold. The industry is the largest employer and yet it receives precious little assistance from govermnent . Let's go back to basics for a minute, if you have travelled overseas, you've stood in queues to see the Acropolis, the Eifel Tower, the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace and paid a fortune to go up Sugar Loaf in Rio, lain upon a square meter of beach in Nice between thousands of people, so many in fact that a walk on the beach is difficult. It's all about people, all you see at these attractions is thousands of people. There is simply no valid reason why we have no (or precious few in comparrison) volume of people. Add the fact that one can still buy a lager in most places in South Africa for less that a GB Pound, that a pizza in an acceptable restaurant will probably cost you less than 5 US dollars, makes one think.

Now come home, the weather is great, the beaches, comparable to the best in the world, our natural kingdom, the Fynbbos, Table Mountain and the Drakensberg, the best and most reachable game Reserves in the world, Robben Island, the Battlefields of KZN, the Wild Coast and the Sardine run...why then aren't we enjoying our fair share of the billions of dollars that are spent on international travel.  

In marketing it has been said, "brag shamelessly", in my humble opinion, we simply don't boast enough, South African travel has everything to offer any visitor, we simply have to get our product together, fine-tune levels of service through a commitment to training and human resource development  and Government needs to commit to SA tourism through assisting small business and increasing, substantially, it's commitment to marketing South Africa, both locally and internationally.

South Africa remains the best kept travel secret in the world.

If you would like to comment on this article or to submit one of your own, kindly send it via e-mail to info@staysa.co.za

 
» Article source: Alan Hawkins - CEO www.staysa.co.za

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