The closing date for the South African tourism industry awards, the Lilizela Tourism Awards, has been extended until 30 June 2014.
The Western Cape’s tourism sector scooped top honours at last year’s ceremony. In 2013, the province’s industry won 15 accolades.
Alan Winde, MEC of Economic Opportunities, said the Western Cape’s tourism industry consistently came out tops in competitions based on tourists’ votes.
“Tripadvisor, the world’s biggest travel site, this week awarded Certificates of Excellence to 2113 South African businesses. The bulk of these, 1169, are based in the Western Cape. Like the Tripadvisor rankings, the Lilizela Award winners are chosen by tourists. Great service is one of the key factors in repeat visits and the Western Cape’s establishments have set a high standard for service excellence. After a great showing last year, I wish our sector the best for this year’s awards,” said MEC Winde. South African Tourism said they had received hundreds of submissions for the awards.
This year’s focus areas include service excellence, entrepreneurship, sustainable development and the Minister’s Award.
Provincial winners will be selected at events across the county in the coming months and the national awards ceremony will follow in September.
Annually, visitors spend more than R18 billion in the Western Cape. The region is expected to welcome over three million international arrivals over the next three years. MEC Winde said the tourism sector was a key economic driver and employer.
“The national industry contributes R189 billion to the country’s gross domestic product. In the Western Cape, we aim to grow the tourism sector’s contribution to the region’s GDP to 15% by 2015. To ensure we reach this goal, we must embrace service excellence and continue to give potential visitors new reasons to travel to the province.”
Consumer voting closes on 13 July. For more information on the competition and to enter visit the official website of the awards at www.lilizela.co.za.
For media queries, kindly contact:
Bronwynne Jooste
Spokesperson for MEC Alan Winde
Tel: 021 483 3550
Cell: 082 454 4365
E-mail: bronwynne.jooste@westerncape.gov.za
