2021 WESSA Annual Review

2021 BLUE FLAG LAUNCH WESSA officially launched the 2021/22 Blue Flag Season this year at Hermanus in the Western Cape. In recognition for their excellence in safety, amenities, cleanliness and environmental standards, 60 Blue Flags will be proudly flown at 51 beaches, 5 marinas and by 4 sustainable tourism boats around South Africa over the forthcoming 2021/2022 Blue Flag season. The season officially opens on the 1st December 2021. Thirty-three Pilot beach sites were recognized this year for their efforts toward reaching Blue Flag status in the near future. With a national goal of 100 Blue Flag sites by 2030, all efforts are now focused on assisting these pilot sites to become fully awarded with the Blue Flag. WESSA continues to celebrate the great work of Grotto Beach and the Overstrand Municipality, hosts of the 2021/2022 launch who proudly achieved their Blue Flag status for 21 years! WESSA is committed to continue working together with municipalities and tourism operators to build the Blue Flag programme to its full potential and to restore the tourism industry after the devastating effects of COVD-19. The Green Key programme remains heavily impacted by the lack of international tourism to the country, but our partner hotel properties have seen gradual recovery through the support of domestic travelers. The Green Key programme still has significant potential for growth in South Africa and our hospitality partners remain committed to making their operations more sustainable. Our unit remains very optimistic about this awards programme and believe that we will still see the projected growth we had planned for before the pandemic started. Many of our tourism partners have also made use of this period to restructure and plan more strategically around the idea of sustainability and we believe this reset will be positive for the growth of Green Key in South Africa. GREEN KEY PROGRAMME

Blue Flag Overstrand Municipality receiving their 2021/2022 award

34 Annual Review 2020-2021