Tourism worth R374bn
More can be done to boost black ownership in the sector, says chief executive
WHILE the Tourism Indaba, now renamed Africa’s Travel Show, was highly praised as being a success, South African Tourism chief executive Sisa Ntshona believed that more could be done to elevate blackowned businesses.
This stance was also taken by the ANC with the phrase “radical economic transformation” featuring prominently in President Jacob Zuma’s speeches.
Of the more than 1 000 exhibiting businesses from 18 African countries, 90 were black-owned tourism businesses from South Africa.
This was pleasing, but there was still a long way to go, Ntshona said.
While the number of blackowned companies increased each year Ntshona, who became CEO of South African Tourism last year, said they were making strides in roping in more black businesses to the indaba.
“Hidden Gems was a pioneering initiative between the private sector and public sector aimed at accelerating inclusive growth in the tourism industry. The programme identified 90 quality tourism SMES from all nine provinces, and helped get them market-ready before their sponsored participation at Africa’s Travel Indaba.
“It proved to be a highly successful platform for them to meet and network with fellow exhibitors, as well as travel buyers, and gain exposure for their enterprises,” Ntshona said.
“This year was all about listening to the feedback from exhibitors and partners that resulted in some fundamental changes, to ensure the event stays fresh and relevant.
“These ranged from the show’s updated diary system that provided more matchmaking and meeting opportunities, to a brand-new Indaba app as the show’s primary source of information about news, meetings and events.”
On small businesses, Ntshona said: “Other event enhancements included the new Lap of Luxury pavilion, showcasing five-star products, and the Hidden Gems pavilion for small-businesses tourism.”
Commenting on the number of black-owned businesses at the indaba, Zuma said: “The radical economic transformation programme seeks to correct the painful history of our country where the black majority was excluded from meaningful participation, ownership and control of the economy,” he said.
He added that the government was looking at achieving at least 30% black ownership of the tourism industry.
In 2015, the total contribution of tourism to the economy was about R374 billion. The sector now supported more than 1.5 million jobs in total, “and we want tourism to support more than 2.2 million jobs by 2026. We are working hard to achieve further growth. Our aim is to make South Africa one of the top 20 tourism destinations in the world,” Zuma said.
Kwazulu-natal MEC for economic development Sihle Zikalala said: “It will allow us the opportunity to engage tour operators to partner with us in growing intra-african travel into Kwazulu-natal. We want to create an impactful tourism sector that will spread into our rural and township tourism economies as well.”