This year’s theme is “Tourism and Water, Protecting our Common Future”.
“Excellent tourist arrivals growth of 10.2 percent in 2012 had made South Africa an exceptional global destination whose arrivals growth consistently tracked higher than the worldwide average.
It had put the destination firmly on track to reach its target of being one of the 20 top destinations in the world by 2020,” says the Minister.
The key element of the ‘Nothing’s More Fun than a Sho’t Left’ campaign is to focus firmly on fun, easy, affordable breaks for South African’s to know and travel their country.
Vaya Mzansi, a campaign initiated by the Tourism Department in partnership with South African Tourism, launched last year did not yield positive results hence the return of Sho’t Left. Bad judgment!
Continued the Minister:“In 2012,12.5 million adult South Africans took 25.4 million trips and spent an average of 4.8 nights away from home per trip.
“Last year’s tourism growth definitely confirms that our investment in tourism promotion and campaigns are bearing fruit. South Africa’s tourism growth rate, that’s well above the global growth rate, justifies the need to celebrate tourism. This industry contributes 2.9 percent directly and nine percent overall to our GDP,” he says.
With the re-introduction of the Sho’t Left campaign and unveiling of Dr Malinga, one hopes NW tourism visitor numbers would slightly increase as the young at heart and-not-so-young revel on his music, unflinchingly!
Other provinces will also launch their tourism programmes.
