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Searching for black tourism operators on Panorama

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  Trip to Mpumalanga reveals low-scale participation by black business The Panorama Route is a perennial favourite with local and visitors from abroad but the presence of black operators is still lagging far behind despite the assurances by one major player...    My recent travel to the tourism magnet called the Panorama Route in Mpumalanga province of South Africa was not so much as to marvel at the breathtaking natural features there. This time I had a bigger mission, which was to assess the presence of black tourism operators. This time I elected to enter this route, also known as the R532, off the R36 from Mashishing Lydenburg. At this point, there exists a spot with its own significance – the Echo Caves. The debate whether the caves are part of the Panorama Route never ends. Geographically the Echo Caves are clearly off the Panorama Route, and in Limpopo province. But in terms of experiencing this sought-after route, popping into the caves is something not easy to avoid. T

Exploring Burgersfort, the new Platinum City

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The colourful setting of Platinum Aloe restaurant at Thaba Moshate casino resort. The beauty of travel in South Africa is that you need not chase big-name destinations to have a good time away. Take frontier town of Burgersfort for example. Just 20 years ago, then stopover dorpie was the butt of jokes even for locals. The rural population here at the time thought real shopping meant travel to Polokwane, some 150km away! That was a long way to go for shopping but thankfully Burgersfort has cast away its one-horse town monkey. So much has changed in recent years, and Burgersfort is now a boom town, thanks to platinum mining in the area. It has now adopted marketing moniker of Platinum City! The town is growing so fast, with shopping malls boasting major retail and service brands, even city ones like Woolies and Postnet. Estates with double-storey houses are springing up where it used to be open grassland on mountain foothills; similarly impressive homes are also rising up