KANYAMAZANE – Amid the despair the tourism industry suffered due to the effects of lockdown and the outcry from its various sectors to open it and allow its entities to operate, two enthusiastic young men from this township came up with an initiative called Travel My SA.

It is aimed at assisting the industry by promoting various destinations. Sifiso Shabangu of eMpakeni and C of Lekazi started Travel My SA, an initiative focusing on promoting the various destinations in South Africa, with Mpumalanga taking precedence through visual graphics and cinematography.

They produce travel films and documentaries aimed at promoting destinations by raising awareness about history, heritage, general information, food, accommodation and mostly, activities.

Their documentaries are aired on various social media platforms such as Facebook with the aim of sharing detailed visual images with explanatory voice-overs with travellers across the world. READ: SANParks announces accommodation booking rules for lockdown level 2 “Travel My SA is our contribution to the tourism industry’s recovery roadmap. We make these videos free of charge and all we ask for from the tourism communities in the areas where we film, is assistance with accommodation, meals and a guide to show us around. Sometimes we don’t get all that and we cater for ourselves.

In most areas we visited, various facility owners welcomed us with open arms as they understand that they are the beneficiaries of the initiative, while some don’t entertain us, thinking that we want to take them for a ride.” Their videos are on Facebook and YouTube and they do not reserve any rights of usage to anyone willing to use them to promote tourism.

“With a lack of resources and sponsors, we use the little money we have to fund our operations for equipment to transport. However, we were recently assisted by Chatters Restaurant that donated T-shirts and jackets, while PJ Travel sponsored the fuel for our road trips. We want to achieve more and hope that one day we will be able to work with organisations such as the Mpumalanga Tourism and Parks Agency or the ministry of tourism itself. We also look forward to growing our audience organically so that we can attract various sponsors, especially with equipment and transport,” added Shabangu.

Their first project, Project52, will see them travelling to 52 destinations in 52 weeks. It started in June and will continue until May 2021. At every destination, they will produce a complete travel guide documentary. They have so far been to Mpakeni, Matsulu, Nkomazi, Waterval Boven, Pilgrim’s Rest, Barberton, Dullstroom, Piet Retief and Wakkerstroom.