The South African Government is aiming to boost the number of successful tourism businesses owned and operated by the country’s black majority as part of an aggressive growth strategy.
At the recent INDABA travel show in Durban, South African President Jacob Zuma said economic transformation would help fuel growth in tourism, and that black entrepreneurs would be targeted to be leaders in growing new markets in Asia and the Middle East.
This would involve several programs run by South Africa Tourism, including participating in international trade shows, as part of the country’s “radical economic transformation program”.
“The radical economic transformation program seeks to correct the painful history of our country where the black majority was excluded from meaningful participation, ownership and control of the economy,” Zuma said.”For the tourism industry, we are looking to achieve at least a 30% black ownership of the tourism industry currently.”
Zuma said INDABA had involved 90 black-owned tourism businesses from all nine provinces in South Africa, which he said offered authentically South African tourism products, services and experiences.
He said the country would also develop local tourism offerings in areas including “township tourism”, rural tourism and homestays, which would also offer a diverse South African experience.
The measures were one element of a “five in five” tourism growth strategy, which involved an aggressive target of attracting five million more international arrivals and domestic tourists within the next five years.
