In recent years tourism has replaced agricultural activities. Tourism is the main source of income for the Bela-Bela area. Many game farms occupied the land where agricultural farming use to take place. Bela-Bela which means boiling-boiling is sunny all year round and also a desirable place for pensioners who account for approximately 65% of the town's white population

The town is surrounded by hotels, lodges, guesthouses, nature reserves and game ranches. Since 1830 people have come to Bela-Bela to wallow in the natural mineral baths which contain healing properties and now over a million tourists visit Bela-Bela annually.

The climate is very mild throughout the year with a slight difference between winter and summer. Summer is warm and rainy with hot winds blowing from the northwest. In winter, the weather is dry and cloudless with cool to warm days and cold nights. The average temperature is between 12 and 39.

Historical & Other Places of Interest Mineral springs; Aventura;Grave of Christina Pretorius; British Blockhouse; Carousel Casino and Entertainment World; Mokopa Reptile Park; Thaba Kwena Crocodile Farm; Bela-Bela Dam; Bela-Bela Waterfront; 4 x 4 routes; Game and hunting farms.

Tourism is a major contributor to the economy of Bela-Bela Municipality and cognizance must be taken of the environmental uniqueness of the region. Bela-Bela (Warmbaths) is situated on the main highway from Gauteng to the Limpopo Province and Zimbabwe. It s famous as a holiday and health resort, owing to the renowned hot minerals which produce 22 000 litres of water hourly at temperature of 50 ° C. This natural resource is under the management of Aventura Resorts.

The Municipality incorporates wetland areas next to the Bospoort stream and Klein Kariba River, and south of the Aventura Resort. It also incorporates numerous game and nature reserves that are popular tourists destinations. These include Mabula, the award winning and internationally acclaimed Mabalingwe, Bonwa Phala, Kunkuru and Sondela.

Local economic development requires acceptable levels of infrastructure to thrive. It includes the development of roads in Bela-Bela. An integrated transport plan needs to be developed and financed for implementation. Public transport issues relating to taxi, bus, rail, etc. must also be addressed.

Internal roads under the authority of Bela-Bela Municipality (in terms of municipal roads classification) should be maintained to a high standard. Bela-Bela has a landing strip which presents an opportunity to be developed to a level where it can accommodate charter planes. There are tourists who prefer to fly to Bela-Bela. This may in the longer term trigger a plan for airport development to cater for tourists from abroad and local.

Infrastructure provision such as water, sanitation, waste management, communication, electricity, etc. should support tourism facilities such as hotels, game lodges and golf estates as far as possible. Bela-Bela Town's development should be the first priority in terms of municipal infrastructure provision. This will assist local business to thrive and attract more tourists and have agricultural products transported to markets, processed and exported to other countries.

Infrastructure development should be provided in time and maintained regularly. The service industry strives within an environment where there are good roads, communication, electricity, water, and sanitation networks. These and other issues will make the environment conducive to do business and create jobs and grow the local economy.