The Minister of Tourism, Mr Marthinus van Schalkwyk, addressed more than 50 Tourism Businesses at the tourism industry workshop in Ceres, Western Cape this morning. The workshop was organised by the Tourism Enterprise Partnership (TEP).
TEP is the operating entity for Strategic Partners in Tourism, a Non-Profit Company (NPC) who utilises funding from Corporate South Africa and Government to facilitate the growth, development and sustainability of small tourism businesses in South Africa.
TEP was successful in achieving and exceeding its performance indicators over the past year – the number of new small tourism businesses registered with TEP across all provinces was 742 taking the total number of beneficiaries to 4 242. The number of jobs created by enterprises supported by TEP for the year 2011 was 4 991 and their increased turnover was R454 million.
This raised the overall TEP contribution to job creation over the past 10 years to more than 66 900 jobs and turnover of over R5,3 billion. To date, TEP has trained over 18 000 individuals and mentored 220. A recent independent research study commissioned by TEP shows that 43% of TEP registered businesses maintained constant employee numbers during the year, with 31% increasing and 26% reducing staff numbers. The outlook for 2012 is positive with 51% of all respondents expecting to keep employee numbers stable for 2012 with 42% hoping to grow and 7% expecting to shed staff.
Minister van Schalkwyk said that “With the national focus on job creation, the tourism industry is well suited to deliver results, as it tends to be labour-intensive and a good vehicle for entrepreneurship and the development of small businesses. It is therefore through vehicles such as TEP that we aim to increase tourism’s total contribution to the economy and reach job creation targets.”
‘Empowering small tourism businesses with skills to grow and sustain their businesses will assist in us reaching our targets for job creation. Therefore workshops, like the one hosted today, should become more frequent and intensified in the industry’, the Minister added.
The Workshop was also attended by Google South Africa, who presented on how small tourism business can start their own website which will further assist them in marketing their businesses to local and international tourists.
TEP’s aims are to:
i) improve the performance of small tourism businesses, resulting in job creation in both urban and rural areas
ii) increase the participation of black enterprises in the tourism industry
iii) advance entrepreneurial skills
iv) direct market access for small tourism products and
v) stimulate innovative and demand driven small business product development for long-term viability.
Enquiries:
Melene Rossouw
Director: Media Liaison
Tel: 021 465 7240
Cell: 082 753 7107
E-mail: mrossouw@tourism.gov.za
Natasha Rockman
Deputy Director: Media Liaison
Tel: 021 465 7240
Cell: 076 429 2264
E-mail: nrockman@tourism.gov.za
