Some of the establishments hope to take advantage of several church gatherings including the services over this Easter long weekend. Most churches, big and small, hold special services during Easter.

Businesses in the local tourism value chain in SA’s Gauteng province are positioning themselves to host patrons as they look to take advantage of the Easter long weekend. One of them is Bonga Ngola, the owner of a guest house in the township of Soweto. Ngola owns 3-star guesthouse established in 2013 called Ekuthuleni Bed and Breakfast. She says her 16-room facility is already fully-booked for Easter, with some of her patrons being churchgoers.

“I have the 50% occupancy of the SANDF and then 50 percent is the church members. These are the people that every time when they live, the guest house, we make sure that we meet 99% of their expectations when they were at their house. I have people from Limpopo and Mpumalanga, even in July there's a big church conference that is also coming, forgot the name. and we are already fully booked, and they are not from both provinces, these ones they're from KZN”, Ngola said.

There are hundreds of churches around the city of Johannesburg. One of them is the International Pentecost Holiness Church. The church has about 3 000 000 congregants. The church's council secretary, Reverend Mpho Makwana, says the church will be opening its doors to thousands of their members who will be making their way into Johannesburg this Easter

“At Our headquarters our main infrastructure the main church takes 25 000 people seated adjacent to it is the youth centre which also takes a further 25 000 people seated so generally on such occasions. This weekend we are most likely to have about, at the Silo to have 45 000. Generally, the guests the will see most people will have their family members who are not necessarily church members coming to attend weddings”, Makwana said.

Chairperson of Soweto Tourism, Thato Motopeng, says the religious tourism sector is a big market for township and village businesses. Many of these businesses do not benefit from major events in the country. But there are positive signs that things could soon improve. The organisation has recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding with SA Tourism to integrate everybody within the value chain to ensure that local businesses are supported and they too benefit from big events like the G20 group of countries.

“ We've got a lot of migration of religious people, am, the CC, the Catholics, the Christian community and so forth. So these are they create a nice economic flow when they start to migrate across the country. And as you know, the tourism sector has to benefit in that space where we now have people that can now offer accommodation, offer transportation, offer alternative things to do during the Easter weekend. So it's just a matter of collaboration, in terms of SA Tourism yes, we have an MOU with SAT that focuses on the marketing and development of township and village tourism”, Motopeng said.

Facilities like the Soweto Towers are also a big hit during the Easter holidays. Sizwe Mathebula is one of the directors at Soweto Towers and says with the Rand Show taking place this weekend, plus the influx of churchgoers, they are bracing themselves for a busy long weekend of about 3000 people visiting the facility.

“We get good numbers. The rand show is just around the corner here in Nasrec, some people they go play there, we are also close by some people will drop by and come to Soweto to feel the vibe. We've got lots of activities, especially for adrenaline enthusiasts, we've got your bungee jumping, we've got your freefall, we've got your quad bike, you've got your paintball and your wall drive so the people will come through even those from church, you find that some others don't have a place to stay and stuff like that, so we do have partnerships, like Emthunjeni there's Mam Suzy there and there's also Babu Phineas, may his soul rest in peace in Pimville guest house, so we will send them there”, Sizwe Mathebula.

The Easter weekend is four days long and there are expectations of a much-needed boost to the local economy from accommodation spaces with those in the local tourism sector also calling for better co-ordination and intentional inclusions of local businesses in big events like the G20 and tourism value chains.

---SABC---