MEC MONAMA PUTS LIMPOPO ON TOP
By Staff Reporter
Ha-Ramantsha: Limpopo Province is known to be the busiest Province during this time of the year as over 1.5 million pilgrims flock to the province to visit their various places of worship for the Easter period. The MEC for Department of Economic Development, Environment and Tourism (LEDET), Mr. Rodgers Monama, took the opportunity to wish all the visitors to the province well and a safe stay during this period. This, he did when he officially launched the 2023 edition of the Easter Campaign during a glittering media briefing at Kone Village Boutique Lodge, Ha-Ramantsha, Makhado Municipality in Vhembe. The Agency does this to consolidate its grip on top as the most visited province in the country. In his welcome remarks the representative of the Mayor, Cllr. N. Munyai welcomed all who came and indicated that Makhado Municipality had so much on offer including culture and heritage. The municipality is home to many artists and crafters along the famous and rich Ribola Art Route, which is visited by most international tourists The event was attended by the Limpopo Tourism Agency (LTA) Board members, councillors, government officials, media and tourism stakeholders in the Vhembe District. According to the CEO of the Agency, Mr. Moses Ngobeni, who also directed the programme, the campaign will largely be driven through various media channels.
The Board Chairperson stressed the importance of collaborations with the tourism industry as this campaign cannot succeed if the Agency runs solo with it without the involvement of the tourism industry as a key driver of tourism in the province. “As the Agency we would be grateful to hold hands with the tourism industry being the drivers of the industry to promote this beautiful province with so much to enjoy”.
The MEC of LEDET, Mr. Rodgers Monama, delivered a keynote address and he commended the industry for its resilience and hard work to put Limpopo on the map. When I started in October last year, the province was within the top three, but now that I am here, the province is at the top of the country’s rankings in respect of domestic tourism” Monama further said, “In line with our sister Department of Transport and Community Safety, we are also calling for calm and restraint on the roads during this time and urge all our visitors to drive with caution and restraint to arrive alive at their destinations. We take this opportunity to call on all the citizens of the province to give all our visitors a warm reception. Easter period is characterized by short visits by family and friends within the domestic market. In the case of the Limpopo Province, the added benefit is the flood of pilgrims to several churches in the province. These pilgrims come mainly from within South Africa but an undetermined number of them also hail from the neighboring countries that border Limpopo Province, namely, Botswana, Zimbabwe and Mozambique”. Easter period in itself presents a yet to be exploited area of tourism awareness for LTA. The purpose for this campaign is to among other things inspire and drive demand for domestic tourism through the conversion of VFR’s (Visiting friends and relatives) into leisure tourists, reduce seasonality and promote all year-round leisure travel, encourage the industry to embrace the digital transformation in their enterprises, provide support for the “Sho’t Left” campaign to both trade and consumer, and entrench Limpopo as the home of the mass pilgrimage given huge denominations in the province. As he concluded, Monama said, “Another competitive advantage is that the two Zion Christian Churches are not the only big churches in Limpopo. Tomorrow, Saturday the 25th March 2023, I have been invited to yet another big denomination, the Methodist Church, in Sekhukhune District. I hope religious tourism is yet another area to also be used to increase the numbers of tourists in our province”.
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