South African Business 2019 edition

OVERVIEW
Tourism and events
The events and conferences sector is growing across the country.
South Africa gained its 10th World Heritage Site in 2018, opening
up the possibility of a new type of niche tourism for the
country and Mpumalanga in particular.
A three-billion-year-old micro-fossil found in the
Makhonjwa Mountains near Barberton and the border with
Swaziland is thought to be the oldest sign of life on the planet.
Now the Makhonjwa Mountains, themselves somewhere between
3.2-billion and 3.6-billion years old, have been declared a
World Heritage Site by the United Nations Educational‚ Scientific
and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO). The tourist offering near
Barberton has been branded the Genesis route.
There are 711 745 people employed in the tourism industry,
with road transport (29%), food and beverages (20%) and accommodation
(19%) absorbing the largest numbers. The sector
contributes 9% to South Africa’s gross domestic product (GDP)
and the National Department of Tourism has ambitious growth
targets. It wants to see tourism contribute R1-trillion to GDP and
create an additional 300 000 jobs by 2026.
Tourist numbers are going up, both from traditional markets and
from newer markets like China and India. In 2017, South Africa hosted
SECTOR INSIGHT
A new World Heritage
Site has been declared in
Mpumalanga.
• The Cape Town International
Convention Centre (pictured)
has increased capacity and
flexibility.
10.2-million tourists. This represented
a small increase of just 2%
over the previous year, but that
figure was a 10% improvement
on the year before.
The rise in tourist numbers
follows determined efforts by
national and provincial tourism
bodies to promote the country.
In Mpumalanga, links to BRICS
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