Women from the various sectors within the tourism industry gathered at The Silokazi’s in Inanda in Durban on Thursday, where Durban Tourism hosted a Women in Tourism engagement, as part of the eThekwini Municipality’s Women’s Month celebrations.
Delegates and business women convened to identify some of the challenges they faced in the tourism sector and were also empowered with access to business resources and opportunities in the industry.
Among others who were in attendance were director for the Civil Aviation Authority, Poppy Khoza; chairperson of the South African Chapter of the Indian Ocean Rims Business Forum, Nokuthula Ndlovu; and, group chief executive officer at Travel with Flair, Johanna Makgalemele.
Ndlovu encouraged women to make use of technology to ensure the success of their businesses. She said that it was important for women to invest in virtual reality in the tourism industry, and to also use their data to generate an income.
“We also need to learn the skill of droning. Then we take what we take from the drones and put it into virtual reality and start promoting the places that we have here and that is the economy. Technology enables us to think beyond where we are,” said Ndlovu.
She encouraged other women to invest in advertising and promotion.
“There is Tik Tok, which is a digital and currency economy. You can make money advertising just where you are and sharing your stories,” said Ndlovu.
She said that there was an economy within the tourism space and that it was important for business women in tourism to share their data, and understand the currency of their stories.
“As South Africans in the tourism space, we have got so much data. Let us organise ourselves. Let us put currency into our data in tourism. It could be a story – let us sell these stories all over the world about our tourism and let us make sure that Durban is the place to be,” said Ndlovu.
Magkalamela said that it was important for women to have clear policies written down when they started a business, which would indicate how customers could procure from the business when the owner was not able to monitor it at all times.
She said they should have business plans, adding that they could access various departments and businesses which could assist them to perfect these business plans, in case they struggled.
Tour operator Nelly Shange, from Spella Travel and Tours, said that she found the event to be inspirational.
Shange said that there were some challenges in the tourism industry.
“Our biggest challenge in the industry is that as tour operators who take people all over the country, there are some attractions you find that are not well maintained and not well managed.
“Some of them belong to the government. So it is very sad to take tourists to areas where you feel it is not safe for them, nor is it guarded or well maintained,” she said.
Shange said that their other challenge was the long process of gaining vehicle permits for the vehicles that they use to take people on tours. She pleaded with the Department of Transport to assist small tourism businesses to speed up the process of approving vehicle permits that they use to transport their clients.