{"id":34306,"date":"2026-05-12T14:46:12","date_gmt":"2026-05-12T12:46:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=34306"},"modified":"2026-05-12T14:46:12","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T12:46:12","slug":"sa-president-hails-tourism-as-key-economic-driver-in-africa","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/sa-president-hails-tourism-as-key-economic-driver-in-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"SA President hails tourism as key economic driver in Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>South Africa&#8217;s (SA) President Cyril Ramaphosa has described tourism as a major economic contributor in the continent.<\/p>\n<p>Ramaphosa has officially opened the 2026 Africa Travel Indaba in Durban\u00a0on Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p>The Indaba is one of the largest tourism marketing events on the African calendar, showcasing the widest variety of the continent\u2019s best tourism products.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFor many African countries, tourism is not merely a leisure industry. It is a developmental instrument. It becomes an instrument through which we can grow our economies. Tourism must be seen for what it is, a major economic driver as it contributes billions of dollars annually to many African economies,\u201d says Ramaphosa.<\/p>\n<p>According to Statistics SA, the tourism sector accounts for nearly one million direct jobs.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis means that around one in 18 workers is directly employed in tourism.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>President Ramaphosa says SA\u2019s tourism industry is attracting more tourists.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c SA welcomed 10.5 million international visitors last year, a clear sign that the world is rediscovering our country with renewed enthusiasm.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;SABC\/ChannelAfrica&#8211;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":15178,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"news-type":[26],"class_list":["post-34306","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-general_news","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"Ramaphosa has officially opened the 2026 Africa Travel Indaba in Durban\u00a0on Tuesday.","published_date":"","news_description":"Ramaphosa has officially opened the 2026 Africa Travel Indaba in Durban\u00a0on Tuesday.","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/34306","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/34306\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34307,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/34306\/revisions\/34307"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15178"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34306"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=34306"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}