Tourism Minister Lindiwe Sisulu on October 12 unveiled Destination South Africa’s Global Advocacy Programme to ramp up advocacy efforts in key source markets around the world.

The programme was initiated by the Department of Tourism, South African Tourism and the Tourism Business Council of South Africa (TBCSA). It forms part of the Tourism Sector Recovery Plan.

“We are going to embark on a strategic yet direct approach to our markets to ensure that consumers, trade partners and the global media are truthfully informed about the memorable and affordable, easy accessibility and safety factors that come with travelling to South Africa in this Covid-19 environment,” the Minister said.

She stated that the department had dealt with various missions and embassies in working behind the scenes to get South Africa off of other countries' travel red lists and travel advisories, which had shut the country out of the world, and vice-versa.

“It’s these learnings, along with contributions from the sector, that we will take into this important advocacy programme to lead the reshaping of the South African narrative to a positive and welcoming one and increase our arrivals from tourists, both for leisure and business events. To this end, we anticipate some early shoots ahead of our festive season," Sisulu commented.

TBCSA CEO Tshifhiwa Tshivhengwa said South Africa’s inbound tourism recovery was dependent on the attractiveness of the country’s brand as a tourist destination. 

He added that the Global Advocacy Programme would help to rebuild the country’s brand and, ultimately, attract more tourists to visit the country.

“The recovery and re-imagination of tourism in South Africa will benefit with the successful implementation of this programme globally. The TBCSA fully supports the advocacy programme as a catalyst for tourism recovery,” he noted.