The Tourism Unit within the Department of Economic Dev
elopment’s strategic objective is to promote Johannesburg towards being the number one African destination of choice for both business and leisure in an effort to:
- Improve seasonality, length of stay and tourist spend during visits to Joburg.
- Improve the diversity of the tourism offering in Joburg.
- Build a positive image / perception for the city among local, national and international audiences.
“In line with the prioritisation of achieving increased visitor arrivals in the city and contributing towards the economic growth target of 5% by 2021, Joburg Tourism seeks ways of increasing its presence and footprint throughout Gauteng, at various strategic locations, which includes Nelson Mandela Square.
The new VIC is situated in the heart of Sandton, Africa’s most iconic square mile, and ideally placed for both business and leisure travellers, who are key to contributing towards growth targets outlined by the City’s administration.
“According to the Liberty Group report (Two Degree, released on 06/09/2017), Sandton has an annual average foot traffic in excess of 24 million, hence it serves as the perfect location for the new VIC,” says Cllr Leah Knott, MMC for Economic Development at the City of Johannesburg.
Joburg Tourism also currently operates a satellite VIC at Park Station.
Thus far, Joburg Tourism`s operations are guided by the City’s 10 Priority Implementation Plans (PIPs). The Tourism department contributes significantly to two of them, namely: 5% Economic Growth and Job Creation – reducing unemployment to under 20% by 2021.
The launch of the VIC is also an opportune time to unveil the upgraded, interactive Joburg Tourism website and the new Mobile App – which also present opportunities for tourism-related businesses (SMMEs) to list or verify their details and benefit from the exposure the site will provide and other related marketing initiatives.
The Sandton VIC and website launch has been chosen to coincide with Tourism Month,
which takes place from 1 – 30 September annually, with the highlight being UNWTO World Tourism Day, celebrated globally every year on 27 September.
World Tourism Day was started by the United Nations World Tourism Organization in 1980. This particular date was selected as it was on this day that the laws of the UNWTO came into force in 1970. This is considered as a major landmark for the global tourism industry, as it aims to make people aware about the significant role of tourism in the international community – as well as illustrating how it impacts social, economic, cultural and political values.
United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) has declared the 2018 theme as “Digital Transformation and Tourism”. In this spirit, for World Tourism Day 2018, the theme needs to find local interpretation and translation in our 2018 activities, projects and stakeholder engagements, as well as the celebration of World Tourism Day.
One of Joburg Tourism’s core mandates is to provide online tourism information, along with online SMME and association support.
In order to embrace international technological trends and to remain competitive in the digital sphere, Joburg Tourism has developed a mobile app, while also redeveloping its website to be more user friendly, appealing and to make it mobi-friendly.
The website will be launching as www.visit.joburg
