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KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) hotel occupancy rates hit an all-time high of 86% over the Heritage Day Long weekend, leaving the sector feeling positive towards the summer season.

The KZN tourism sector, which has been dealt a devasting blow since the beginning of the lockdown, is beginning to see some major growth in occupancies with the past two major long weekends showing a positive upward swing in the number of occupancies.

Delighted by the high occupancy numbers across the province, the Acting Chief Executive Officer of Tourism KwaZulu-Natal, Ms. Phindile Makwakwa said, “Government and tourism trade partners have been working around the clock to turn the sector around over the past few months and we are delighted to see that the tides are finally turning to our favor and the numbers are showing positive growth. While the world, South Africa and KZN are not where we were before Covid19, the performance of the long weekend shows that our holidaymakers are slowly making their way back to KZN and we very pleased to have them back”.

As the President’s announcement that South Africa has now moved to Alert Level One and the aggressive government vaccination drive, Tourism KZN is now setting its sights to the Summer Season. The campaign will be launched by MEC Pillay in the coming weeks, to drive more domestic travelers into the province for the upcoming season.

Makwakwa further welcomed the 2020 South African Tourism Annual Report which shows that KwaZulu-Natal was the number one domestic tourism destination in 2020, with 3.8 million trips followed by Gauteng at 2.8 million trips.

‘We are thrilled that KZN is back on the number one spot again and the plan is to surpass the 2020 numbers this year. We believe we can achieve that looking at the work that we have done thus far. Our continued partnership with tourism trade is at the heart of this and our future success.”

Tourism KZN has a variety of specials on their website www.zulu.org.za

KZN Is Open for Travel. KZN Has it all. Believe It.

Issued by Tourism KZN