COVID-BATTERED SECTOR FACING TWIN CHALLENGES BY GILLIAN KLAWANSKY
TOURISM LEVEL 4 % of target achieved
Tourism
179,2
200,0
Target
180,0 160,0 140,0 120,0 80,8
65,2
66,1
80,0
78,3
100,0
60,0 40,0 20,0 Black Ownership: Equity Ownership
Management and Control
Skills Development
With the tourism & hospitality sector having been among the hardest hit by Covid-19, the industry is grappling with the twin needs of recovery and transformation, with the latter facing an added challenge because personal relationships play a bigger role in this sector than most others. The success of many small, medium and micro enterprises (SMMEs) in the tourism space – which make up a significant proportion of businesses in the tourism sector – comes down to the relationships that owners establish with clients, suppliers and industry partners. Yet, this often hampers transformation especially when it comes to ownership and management, say the experts. Tourism achieves 78.3% of its ownership target, the third highest of all sectors, yet the general consensus is that this does not reflect reality.
Enterprise and Supplier Development
SocioEconomic Development
“Tourism is a relationship business,” explains Tshifhiwa Tshivhengwa, CEO of The Tourism Business Council of South Africa (TBCSA), a non-profit umbrella organisation representing businesses in the travel and tourism sector. “People supply or work with people they know.” “In terms of transformation, the existing owner can sell the business but they’re not selling their valuable industry relationships,” he adds. They can sell one business and then start another, taking their existing clients along with them, because they still “own” these relationships. The new owner of the original business therefore starts off on the back foot. This is particularly relevant because of the prevalence of SMMEs in the sector. “Tourism businesses are, in the majority of cases, small enterprises that are predominantly family-owned which presents
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