Brett Hendricks | General Manager | Thebe Tourism Group | mail me |
In a general South African sense, the word ‘transformation’ has taken on an important, but perhaps singular and distinctive meaning. To be of real economic value to the nation as a whole, transformation needs to be inclusive across a broad range of South African society.
We have a beautiful country. But we need economic growth. In order to achieve that, we need to see transformation happening across all industries.
And that means each sector must invest in its own assets. If we can prove our belief in our own economic future, as a nation, the world will believe in it too.
The tourism economy
In the world of tourism – the arena in which we showcase that beauty to the world at large, and where I find myself along with my colleagues and contemporaries in the industry – transformation is vital first and foremost among the communities in closest contact with our industry.
Not only because of exclusion in the past, in terms of skills development, absorption into the tourism economy and even in terms of creating new local markets for it, but also because of the potential this industry has, here and right now, to create the much needed jobs our country must see. And government has recognised this.
As noted in the South African Treasury’s recently released policy document on economic transformation, inclusive growth and competitiveness, the tourism sector has low barriers to entry, making it an ideal one through which to target other objectives in the policy, such as inclusive growth, through its labour absorption potential.
It is also, according to Minister of Finance, Tito Mboweni, strongly linked to 12 other industries in the South African economy – with every one job created in the tourism sector in turn creating one additional job in an indirect basis in another sector.
However, it’s easy to write these words down in a policy document. It’s getting to the action and the execution thereof that’s always the hardest. But if we can, I have no doubt that investment will follow.
The new economic drought
Unfortunately, in recent years, our economy has taken many hard knocks, and it will take time for the country to recover. Therefore, we need to move forward and think of better and quicker ways of returning to where we were 10 years ago. This is our new economic drought.
So, this is our first goal as a country: to invest in our people, transform our work environments and create jobs.
These imbalances of the past also look towards the transformation of the roles that South African women play in the economy. According to Stats SA, women still fill just 44% of skilled posts in the country, and represent a figure that has remained largely unchanged for more than 15 years. And this despite the recognition that change is needed, as evidenced in the many initiatives by the State, such as the establishment of a Commission on Gender Equality Act (1996), the Skills Development Act (1998), the Employment Equity Act (1998) and the Promotion of Equality and Prevention of Unfair Discrimination Act (2000).
We have focused on being a key driver in empowering women in business. For example, I give you Judiet Barnes – who has been the driving force behind the soon-to-be ground breaking Kruger Shalati Train on a Bridge development, Celeste Bell, General Manager of Cape Point and Siphesihle Penny Ndlela, the founder and CEO of Soul Traveller Tours – a group travel tour operator which focuses on the domestic market.
Transformation in the tourism economy
And therein lies the third area in which transformation in the tourism economy must be accelerated: the creation of our own, local and representative tourism market, particularly important when our international trade flow plateaus somewhat, as it has done over the past year.
Jerry Mabena, CEO of TTG, calls this particular local market the “Afropolitans”. People, like himself, who grew up in the townships but who nevertheless were still able to develop their personal potential, academically and in the job market, but whose own collective potential as a viable tourism market was historically ignored.
The transformation of this market comes with careful understanding. We’ve discovered, for instance, that people within this market like to travel in groups and feel safer in numbers. It’s within this transformative market offering that they are willing to try new things and explore places within their own country they never dreamt of being part of before.
The realisation of this has come with a careful understanding of African heritage within the South African scenario and an ability to package aspects of this heritage into tangible tourism product for the domestic market. And in turn, we’ve discovered the international market finds those products pretty engaging as well.
