South African comedian Trevor Noah reacts to reports that he bagged a R33 million SA tourism deal.
The comedian is currently on his South African comedic 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 on Tuesday, where he refuted claims of the alleged R33 million tourism campaign ad.
Trevor claimed that the private group of hotels, who 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 Covid, 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, 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 R33 million in payment for taking part in the campaign to promote tourism.
“First and foremost, can we stop saying R33 million. It’s not R33 million, it’s not even close to R33 million. 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.”
Also see: Trevor Noah set to be paid R33 million for an advert
