Pretoria – The two-day provincial tourism lekgotla in the North West has set a target of making the province a destination of choice among tourists.
The lekgotla, which was convened by the North West Tourism Department, was a platform for stakeholders to interact and form partnerships that will help to sustain tourism growth in the province.
“As government… we are prepared to partner with traditional authorities, the private sector and public sector entities. These partnerships will help to fast pace the growth in our tourism economy,” said Tourism MEC Desbo Mohono.
She said rural areas will also be included in the tourism fold.
“The Bojanala eco-tourism city will soon be in full swing and this will drastically improve the livelihood of our people in affected villages. It will augur well in addressing social illnesses, which include unemployment, poverty and education, especially for the youth,” she said.
Acting Head of Department Charles Ndabeni said one of the challenges the tourism fraternity is faced with is infrastructural development in villages, townships and small dorpies (towns).
“There is a dire need to develop the current infrastructure in order to grow the tourism economy. We need to improve our roads, technology and communication infrastructure in villages, townships and small dorpies.
“This will allow for economic growth and our tourism product owners will be able to package products properly and ensure sufficient tourism traffic in our villages, townships and small dorpies,” he said.
Nawaal Motlekar of Kwenta Media said it was important for the province to brand and market its tourism products in a way that will attract necessary tourism traffic.
“Tourism product owners in the North West need to start exploring various platforms of marketing, branding and promoting their products.
“It doesn’t matter how small or big your product is, you need put in quite a substantial amount of marketing in order to promote your product”, she said. - SAnews.gov.za
