By Simon Nare
President Cyril Ramaphosa has called for concerted efforts between the government, private sector and communities to grow the tourism sector.
In his weekly newsletter published on Monday, the president said the tourism sector had the potential to be even larger than it currently was.
Ramaphosa said tourism was on the rise again following the slump due to Covid-19 pandemic, with the country recording around 8.5 million international tourist arrivals in 2023. These visitors spent over R95 billion.
He added that domestic tourism was the mainstay of the tourism economy and between January and July last year, South Africans took over 21 million trips to explore the country.
“We are scaling up a range of tourism promotion strategies to restore inbound tourism figures to pre-pandemic levels. These strategies include an improved tourism visa regime, streamlining the tour operator licence process, increased investment in tourism infrastructure and services, and
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