Limpopo Scores Significant Increase In Tourist Numbers During The Festive Season

Limpopo Tourism Agency (LTA) is confident of tourism growth in the province given the high volume of tourists who visited the province during the festive season. This will is good news for the province after the launch of the festive campaign last November. The province continues to do well given its strategic location as a gateway to other African countries and this will undoubtedly boost domestic tourism.

Over 50 000 visitors made their way through Limpopo Wildlife Resorts (LWR) gates during the month of December. The same also goes for the private tourism facilities in the province with most of them receiving very high volumes of tourists in the province compared to the previous year in the same period. This is a very clear indication that the domestic strategy that was developed for the province is indeed beginning to bear fruit with more people beginning to traverse their own province.

The Kruger and Marakele National Parks are still leading the pack as the highest tourist attractions in the province. High volumes of tourists have also been registered at the other facilities such as Forever Resorts at Bela Bela, Swadini in Hoedspruit and Tshipise. Other private game reserves and lodges as well as Mapungubwe National Park, which is a renowned World Heritage site, also did very well during the past festive season. What fascinated us even more during this festive season is the high number of bookings for the 4x4 trails through our very new product, namely Great Limpopo Transfrontier Wilderness Camp and Trails, which covers Letaba, Luvuvu and Great Limpopo Eco-Trails.     

Limpopo Wildlife Resorts LWR), a commercial wing of Limpopo Tourism Agency, has also seen a significant increase from the 20 663 visitors who made their way through our gates during the same period last year, who spent in access of over R1.6 million.

The following 5 Resorts were the busiest of the 11 Resorts:

• Mphephu Resort
• Nwanedi Resort
• Doorndraai
• Acacia
• Rust de Winter

We are very proud to announce that Limpopo citizens topped the list of visitors to our resorts followed by Gauteng and Mpumalanga. Interesting again, is the increased visits by tourists from the SADC countries to our Resorts during the festive.

During this season, we realized that day visits have become a very popular phenomenon with local citizens, hence the increased figure. The visits mostly happen during the holidays and weekends. Thanks to campaigns such as the Wildlife Mahala Week during the tourism month, which seeks to provide free experience of our resorts to ordinary citizens in our province.

This has been one of the most fruitful and successful festive seasons that we have had in many years. We wish to also put it on record that there has not been any incident reported in our Resorts this festive season. On tis note, we wish to thank the service sector for servicing the industry with distinction.