Tourism ambassadors ‘here to help’

TOURISM delegates know who to turn to if they need any assistance during Indaba: they just look for the people sporting the jackets that read “I am here to help.”

The Tourism KwaZulu-Natal ambassadors have become a familiar sight at Indaba at the entry and exit points at the Inkosi Albert Luthuli International Convention Centre since 2005. And they can also be found moving between the venues in case anyone of the thousands of delegates needs help.

The tourism ambassadors, who are either tourism students or unemployed youth, were first used during a pilot project in Ballito when TKZN and the eThekwini Municipality thought it would be a good idea to have local people on hand during the high season to provide information to tourists: to tell them where the restaurants were and to help with safety awareness.

The project was a success, a report was made to the provincial tourism committee - and it was agreed that tourism ambassadors should be used to help Indaba delegates, which is generally the city’s biggest conference gathering of the year.

Visitors sometimes lose their sense of direction and need to be reminded how to get back to their hotels, where to find an accredited taxi, where the shopping malls are, where the People Mover bus can be found at, how to get to Mitchell Park, while many also want to know how to find the city’s factory shops…

They receive a daily briefing from TKZN to jog their memories about what is expected of them.

Having had the exposure and having been given an insight into the industry, some of the Indaba ambassadors have eventually found jobs as tourism officers with TKZN or Durban Tourism.

Thirty-six tourism ambassadors are on duty this week.