Emphasizing significance of participation.
Situated on the coastline of South Africa’s scenic beauty landscape, the Eastern Cape province boosts its attractions through a variety of products amd services from breathtaking activities to cultural experiences that guests can get to enjoy when visiting the Eastern Cape.
Having recently participated at the Africa’s Travel Indaba, the province positioned itself as the premier destination of choice for travelers from all over the world. Known as a Home of Legends, a birth place for the late stateman and freedom fighter Nelson Mandela, the Eastern Cape prides itself as an events destination, offering MICE incentives to events organizers.
The MEC for Economic Development, Environmental Affairs and Tourism I’m the province, Nonkqubela Ntomboxolo Pieters emphasised the significance of participating at this Pan-African tourism trade show as it bolsters and strengthens the province’s position in wold when it comes to the offering of its products and services.
“We’re here at the Africa’s Travel Indaba with all the district municipalities and the two Metros, also with businesses of tourism products owners and the LTO’s to showcase all the products that we have in the province. With our participation here, we aim to ensure we lobby people to come and explore our province’s natural beauty landscape and more that we offer”, said MEC Pieters.
The Eastern Cape registered a softer last quarter in 2024 with 1.3m overnight domestic trips compared to 1.7m in 2023 . According to our South African Tourism’s survey four in five travellers cite 1)tight budgets, 2)lack of time, 3)unemployment and 4)safety worries as reasons for not travelling. The appetite to travel is very much alive, as day-trips to our province jumped 56 percent compared to same period in 2023.
Deputy President Mashatile, in his opening address, championed the ‘Unlimited Africa’ theme as a bold declaration of Africa’s promise. He highlighted that travel and tourism contributed 6.8% to Africa’s GDP in 2023, with projections indicating a rise to 10.4% by 2030 and for South Africa, tourism currently contributes 8.9% to GDP, supporting 1.68 million jobs, with an ambitious target to grow this to 2.2 million jobs by 2030.
The province bounced back to its glory after COVID-19 pandemic from 1.9m trips per year to 6.m in 2023. With sharper integrated marketing, richer products and everyone pulling in the same direction, we are confident Eastern Cape tourism will bounce back…for more news please follow @S.A BUZZ https://sabuzz.co.za and @EasternCapeSA