“Ultimately, tourism is an economic sector based on human interaction, exchange and dialogue, said Deputy Minister of Tourism, Ms Tokozile Xasa opening the “Women in Tourism Conversations,” event held in Mangaung, in honour of International Women’s Day.
“We are here today in Mangaung to continue the conversation we started in 2010, talking to women in tourism about best practices, service excellence, enterprise development, access to funding and capacity building in order to nurture and encourage women entrepreneurs in the industry to see them grow from being emerging business people to successful owners of large tourism enterprises or products,” Xasa said.
The Deputy Minister lauded platforms such as this one, as they were important in raising the voices of women in tourism, to ensure that there was on-going engagement in the sector towards improving the participation of women in the tourism industry. Essential to achieving this will be access to funding which is currently a challenge to most emerging women entrepreneurs due to limited property ownership. One of the interventions mooted is the concept of starting Tourism Stokvels that would encourage the sharing of information and provide a support system to emerging women entrepreneurs.
“As women we need to interact more, share experiences, support and mentor each other for success,” the Deputy Minister urged participants. One of the speakers at the event and a source of inspiration was Ms Nyeleti Mushwana whose NMN Grand Hotel in Tzaneen is graded a four-star establishment by the Tourism Grading Council. Ms Mushwana’s success has won her the South African Tourism’s Emerging Tourism Entrepreneur of the Year Award (ETEYA).
Whilst the tourism sector employs the majority women with 73% of them being black women, this is however at an entry level and where minimal skills are required. When moving up the organisational pyramid, vertical segregation hampers the progression of women to senior managerial positions. Currently only 10% of large enterprises in South Africa have women ownership. The small to medium enterprises currently have 27% – 35% black women in senior management.
The key needs identified for the advancement of women in tourism included: skills and enterprise development, access to funding, awareness of support programmes and leadership through the National Tourism Sector Strategy, the sector committed to creating 225 000 jobs and increasing its contribution to the country’s economy from R189.4 billion to R499 billion by 2020.
Key to this ambitious plan is people development and the integration of women and the youth in the industry. The National Department of Tourism in partnership with the sector, education and training authority, has various training interventions targeted at improving skills set of the industry, and in line with the policies, more effort is taken to skill women in the sector through increased participation in various programmes such as the TEP programme, which is aimed at the development of small to medium enterprises in tourism.
For more information, please contact:
Mpumi Simelane
Cell: 082 354 1510
Tel: 012 444 6612
E-mail: msimelane@tourism.gov.za
Balosang Sanki Lerefolo
Media Liaison Officer
Cell: 082 836 8703
E-mail: slerefolo@tourism.gov.za or balosang@gmail.com
