Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Blue Flag Status for 8 of the City of Cape Town's beaches

Picture: iafrica (source: Tumblr)

The National Minister of Tourism, Marthinus van Schalkwyk, confirmed that eight of the City of Cape Town’s beaches and two of its marinas have been awarded Blue Flag Status.

The Blue Flag is a voluntary eco-label awarded annually to over 3650 beaches and marinas in 44 countries across Europe, South Africa, Morocco, Tunisia, New Zealand, Brazil, Canada and the Caribbean. The City has successfully participated in the Blue Flag Beach Programme since its inception in South Africa in 2001.

This year the City applied for Blue Flag status for eight of its beaches across the metropole – all of which have been granted this coveted status. This means that the City has the highest number of Blue Flag beaches in South Africa.

The beaches that have been awarded Blue Flag status for this season, which runs from 1 December 2012 to 31 March 2013, are Bikini, Mnandi, Strandfontein, Muizenberg, Llandudno, Camps Bay, Clifton 4th and Silwerstroomstrand.

Blue Flag beaches are required to meet 32 criteria spanning four aspects of coastal management: water quality, environmental education and information, environmental management and safety and services. The status indicates that the beaches are clean, have adequate ablution facilities and parking, are environmentally sound, are safe and secure to visit, and adhere to international safety and tourism standards.

In conclusion, the Blue Flag brand adds value to Cape Town’s Responsible Tourism offerings and supports the implementation of the City’s Responsible Tourism Policy.


Monday, October 15, 2012

Increase of tourist arrivals to South Africa

Tourist arrivals to South Africa grew by 10.5 percent over the first six months of this year, Tourism Minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk said.

According to Statistics SA, the tourism figures indicated that South Africa experienced an excellent first half of the year, attracting 4,416,373 tourists to the country between January and June 2012, compared to 3,996,760 tourist arrivals for the same period in 2011.

The tourism industry experienced particularly strong growth in overseas tourist arrivals, recording 17.1 percent growth in arrivals from outside the African continent. A total of 1,163,477 overseas tourist arrivals were recorded for the first six months of 2012, compared to 993,364 tourist arrivals for the corresponding period in 2011.

Image from Destination360
For the full article visit iafrica.com