South African Tourism Chief Executive Officer, Mr Thulani Nzima, and National Tourism Minister, Mr Derek Hanekom will officially launch Tourism Month on 26 August 2014.
Tourism Month is celebrated annually on 27 September, and is aimed at encouraging South Africans to travel their country and get a better understanding of the fun, affordable and exciting attractions available to them on their own doorstep.
World Tourism Day (WTD) 2014 is globally being held under the theme Tourism and Community Development - focusing on the ability of tourism to empower people and provide them with skills to achieve change in their local communities. However, South African Tourism has modified the global theme (SAT) to make it more applicable to the South African market. The South African theme for Tourism Month is “Tourism, Transforming Lives”.
“Tourism Transforming Lives” gives us an opportunity to highlight the positive impact of tourism for ordinary citizens in contributing to:
- Economic contribution of the sector
- Job creation in tourism and poverty alleviation and its relation to the National Development Plan
- Growth of the destination, Investment in infrastructure and the implications of this on domestic tourism and ultimately the economy
- The Sho’t Left marketing campaigns for Local travellers
Festivities relating to the Launch of Tourism Month will be showcased live on SABC 2 Morning Live from (06:00 – 08:00) on 26 August 2014.