The Northern Cape is showcasing its tourism offerings under this year’s theme for World Tourism Day, ‘Tourism and Rural Development’.

The MEC for the Provincial Department of Economic Development and Tourism, Abraham Vosloo, emphasised that the province would undertake activities to foster tourism awareness in local communities, especially in less-visited rural areas of each region, under the theme ‘Building the Northern Cape together – promoting rural development through the promotion of tourism experiences in our villages, townships and small dorpies’.

“Domestic tourism is the first pillar on which the tourism recovery will start. During this month, the focus will be to drive our domestic tourism campaign to get the locals and South Africans to travel and experience the natural wonders of the Northern Cape under the guidance of the health and safety protocols,” said Vosloo.

This year’s domestic tourism awareness campaign will focus on the local communities and highlight the importance of tourism and its social, cultural, and economic value.

Rural tourism in the province includes nature reserves, cultural sites and indigenous areas. Developing tourism in these rural areas has the potential to bring a multitude of benefits to the surrounding communities.

The Northern Cape will use Tourism Month as an opportunity to showcase how tourism can promote the development of communities, people and economies in rural areas. Any successful tourism development depends on its commercial, economic and logistical issues, including the quality of the products, accessibility, and skills. This puts rural areas, which are logistically difficult to get to and often don’t have access to larger scale resources, at a disadvantage compared with urban tourist attractions.