Tourism’s SMMEs to be showcased at Indaba
03 May 2012
“It is vital for us to support these businesses at an event like Indaba – the exposure is not only great for uplifting our province’s economy, but attracts positive growth in our local tourism,” said Mandlakazi Skefile NMBT chief executive.
Each year the municipality selects a group of emerging tourism product owners and assists them with their business development for one year. The trip to Indaba forms part of this support.
“The result of this formation is a formidable tourism force representing the Bay,” added Skefile. Municipality officials said they were happy to support emerging enterprise from the local tourism industry so they could “pick up valuable contacts and grow their businesses”.
Among the SMME’s chosen by the municipality to represent Nelson Mandela Bay, are a group of guesthouses and lodges.
“The SMME’s we have chosen to sponsor, like Red Location Backpackers Lodge, Algoa Inn (Algoa Park) and Zureen’s Guesthouse (Uitenhage) are all opened up to exposure they would not be able to generate by themselves. It’s a relationship of mutual benefit though; by supporting them, we further the tourism potential and branding for our city and they win by being platformed nationally,” said Carleen Arends, NMBM assistant director of tourism.
“Indaba is a great platform with endless opportunity for these SMME’s – it is the best place to get the most up-to-date information on what is happening in the tourism industry,” said Arends, “They get the chance to make business linkages, pick up referrals, promote their product and expose their offerings to a wide audience both nationally and intra-provincially,” she added.
Indaba 2012 takes place next weekend from May 12 to 15 at the Albert Luthuli Convention Centre in Durban. Indaba brings together a showcase of Southern African tourism products and services for the international travel trade. The four-day trade event attracts well over 13 000 delegates from the travel tourism and related industries.
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