Tourism Month

SSouth Africa celebrates Tourism Month annually in September with the aim to focus on the importance of tourism to the economy of South Africa.  The world-wide message for Tourism Month 2017 is sustainable tourism, which encourages the industry to commit to making a low impact on the environment and local culture, while helping to generate future employment for local people. Sustainable tourism aims to ensure that development is a positive experience for local people, tourism companies, and tourists themselves.

Tourism Month 2017

In South Africa, this dedicated month takes place in a lesser visited province to provide the locals of the province with the opportunity to showcase their tourism facilities and attractions. For 2017, the focus is on Mpumalanga. The province is encouraged to showcase its leisure experiences on offer so as to inspire domestic travellers. Mpumalanga, is known as “the place where the sun rises”, and while it may be among South Africa’s smallest provinces, what it lacks in size it more than makes up for in spectacular natural diversity. Not only is Mpumalanga home to the world’s most famous game park (the Kruger National Park), the world’s third deepest canyon, Blyde River, and the world’s oldest cave system, the region is also dotted with numerous game reserves teeming with flora and fauna.

The importance of Tourism Month in South Africa and I do tourism

Tourism Month is a crucial period, from a domestic perspective. It serves as an opportunity to promote domestic tourism. It creates a culture of travel amongst South Africans to gain a better understanding of the affordable, exciting and world-class attractions that are available on their own doorstep. Tourism Month provides the tourism industry with the opportunity for a heightened focus on the importance of tourism to the local economy.

From a business perspective, Tourism Month also aims to generate awareness on the enormous contribution that the tourism industry makes to provincial and national economic growth and job creation. This year, South African Tourism approaches Tourism Month under the lens of the I Do Tourism campaign, which seeks to make tourism everyone’s business by getting the whole country to rally behind tourism by demonstrating the far-reaching impact of the tourism value chain.

Key objectives for Tourism Month and I Do Tourism

In keeping with the international theme for the event, Tourism Month aims to do the following:  

• Show how the world tourism theme can be worked into the IDT initiative and inspire domestic travel by showcasing how taking a trip can be easily accessible, affordable and exciting.
• Encourage all South Africans to get behind tourism and to contribute to tourism in a positive and sustainable manner.
• Show people how they can Do Tourism through assisting with the preservation of the local wildlife and environment.
• Show people how they can Do Tourism through cultural preservation and learning more about the different cultures that grace our beautiful country.