As tourism and the hospitality industry felt the pinch throughout South Africa during lockdown, Vryheid was lucky enough not to be hit so hard, as it continued to operate due to its different market.
The Vryheid Tourism Association (VTA) held its first committee meeting last week, after seven months of lockdown.
In the meeting, it emerged that while other hospitality industries had closed down, those that had applied for essential services were able to operate, as a lot of business people and departmental officials from government were using the facilities – in essence bringing in money to local businesses.
Also, a number of hospitality businesses in Vryheid managed to receive their R50,000 funding from government. A total of 68 in Zululand also received the funding, while in KZN as a whole, about 600 tourism and hospitality businesses benefited from the funding.
While there was positive news, n. VTA identified projects that need to be tackled in order to uplift the standard of tourism in Vryheid and also attract more feet and spending in town.
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The planned projects include keeping Vryheid clean. Even though the municipality and other community members are working on a clean-up project, VTA feels it is of utmost importance to also take part in cleaning up the town, especially the tourism attractions. They are also looking at upgrading the Klipfontein Bird Hide, road safety and tourism awareness, a Mayfair and a schools’ awareness programme.
It was also highlighted that there was a need to meet with the municipality regarding by-laws for those accommodation facilities that are not part of the association, in order to enforce regulations, as they are not paying business rates like the rest of the registered accommodation facilities.
In their previous meeting in January this year, the VTA emphasis was on the use of social media in order to promote the town, as well as upgrading the website, which will serve as a guide to all the attractions in Vryheid.
VTA will hold its next committee meeting on November 18, while its annual general meeting will take place on October 19.
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