Trevor Noah reacts to R33m South African Tourism deal
The stand-up comedian says there is no funny business with regard to his partnership with the country's tourism body.
South African comedian Trevor Noah responds to reports that he bagged a R33m deal with South African Tourism.
The comedian is currently on his South African stand-up comedy tour.
The Citizen reported that the former The Daily Show host appeared as a guest on Clement Manyathela’s mid-morning show on Radio 702 last Tuesday, where he refuted claims of the alleged R33m tourism campaign ad.
Noah claimed that the private group of hotels that are keen to get tourists to South Africa, approached him about taking part in the campaign.
“I said ‘ja, I’d like to be the face’. I mean, I helped Swiss tourism, so I was like how can I not help my own country?”
“I’m dealing with a private body of hotels and Airbnbs because you know that coming out of [the] Covid-19 [pandemic], South Africa has had the lowest rebound rate of any nation in the world that needs tourism as a big part of its GDP,” he said.
“We cannot afford to not have tourists in this country and so when you look at other countries that have bounced back to 90% of their previous capacity before Covid-19, South Africa, I think, we’re sitting at like 50% or 60%, that is terrible for us.”
He went on to deny reports that he received millions in payment for taking part in the campaign to promote tourism.
“First and foremost, can we stop saying R33m. It’s not R33m, it’s not even close to R33m. I do not take money from government, there’s no tender. But I do believe we need to push this country, we need to get people visiting it, otherwise we’ll go further and further down a spiral where there is no money in this country.”
The post Trevor Noah reacts to R33 million SA tourism deal appeared first on Bona Magazine.
