BY DELISA THWALA
MBABANE– The Ministry of Tourism and Environmental Affairs is a step closer to pursuing its target of two million visitors with revenue of E2 billion by 2025.
This was revealed in their Ministry request for the Portfolio Committee where they are seeking the approval of their 2023/24 budget allocation request.
Minister of Tourism and Environmental Affairs Moses Vilakati said such a continued upward trajectory towards its pre-pandemic levels was observed as international arrivals of tourists reached 500 000 in the period January to December 2022.
In addition, he said despite this encouraging growth, visitations during the period under review remained significantly below the 2019 pre-pandemic figures by 58 percent.
“Arrivals from neighboring South Africa and Mozambique were the main source of tourism during this period, with a share of 81 percent of total arrivals,” said Vilakati.
The report further revealed that during the year, the Eswatini Tourism Authority (ETA) undertook the training of traffic police officers on customer care and service.
This was aimed at ensuring that most of the stakeholders who get to be in contact with visitors provide a welcoming experience and further offer them the needed information.
“A total of 50 officers from around the country were trained. The Authority also trained Board of Trustees for Community Based Facilities on governance issues,” said Vilakati.
Worth noting is that the ministry had requested an overall budget of E181 245 764 with a recurrent budget request of E81 182 000 and a capital funding request of E72 000 000. Of the capital budget request E42 000 000 is for Big Five National Park; E2 000 000 is for Design for Africa Museum and E21 500 000 is for the Augmentation of Meteorological Weather Observation station. Ministry has been allocated a recurrent budget of E93 365 122 and capital expenditure amounting to E 38 934 00.
Courtesy Pics of Eswatini Tourism Authority
