The local business community gathered on Thursday, February 19 at the Eat Local restaurant in Ballito for the first Ilembe networking lunch of the year.
Tourism KwaZulu-Natal’s general marketing manager, Boni Mchunu, spoke on matters affecting local tourism, including the importance of event based tourism in the development of our local tourism industry.
Mchunu brought the good news that KZN is the number one domestic travel destination in South Africa and ranked third in terms of international arrivals.
“Our bread is buttered in Africa,” said Mchunu after announcing that the overwhelming majority of South Africa’s international flights come from Africa.
Half of those international visitors are holidaymakers.
Mchunu said the majority of international visitors from beyond Africa are from the United States of America, the United Kingdom and Germany.
Based on these statistics, Mchunu highlighted the value of destination marketing and using international hosting events for marketing purposes.
“KZN hosts quite a lot of international and domestic events and therefore our aim is to use these events as a hook to get more tourists visiting KZN, either before or after events,” Mchunu said.
She said that Tourism KZN is trying to gain international status for the province’s events such as the Nelson Mandela and Comrades marathons and the Amashovashova cycling race.
She agreed that the proposed, highly controversial tourism levy, announced by the department of tourism and environmental affairs MEC Michael Mbuyakhulu late last year (Courier, September 5, 2015), would have a counter productive influence on this project, but said that the proposed levy has been put on hold indefinitely.
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