Like many other countries in the world, South Africa’s post-Covid tourism recovery plan relies heavily on a boom in domestic tourism to help boost businesses who have remained closed for months on end. But can domestic tourism live up to these high expectations?
Prior to the pandemic South Africa’s domestic tourism sector was relatively small and even showing signs of a decline in numbers.
When local tourism is reopened for South Africans how can we realign our offerings and marketing to grow the domestic tourism sector? What needs to be done to make underdeveloped destinations more attractive to domestic travellers? How can we overcome negative stereotypes among South Africans that tourism in South Africa is ‘too expensive’ or ‘overpriced’ and that South Africans are actually not the target market for the country’s most famous attractions.
In episode five of our panel discussion series on Wednesday July 22, we talked to Sisa Ntshona, CEO of SA Tourism, and leading domestic tourism travel writers and bloggers 2Summers, Jared in Cape Town and Lived Travel Experiences’s Senzelwe Mthembu, about their thoughts on the future growth of the South African domestic tourism market and how to create a more successful Domestic Tourism 2.0
Watch the full panel discussion online here on our Facebook page
Some key topics covered in this panel discussion
- What’s stopping South Africans from travelling their own country?
- How do we shift the focus of the industry from international travellers to being more inclusive of locals?
- What is the role of local tourism authorities?
- What’s the impact of social media on the culture of travel?
- There is a perception of local travel being expensive, unwelcoming, and exclusionary? Is this the reality?
- How would we reset domestic tourism?
- How can the marketing of local travel be updated?