How SA tourism is set to reimagine itself post-Covid-19 lockdown

SA Tourism is hosting webinars open to everyone interested in reshaping and reinventing tourism post lockdown.

Tourism worldwide has been the hardest hit due to the Covid-19 pandemic, and South Africa is no exception.

What will tourism look like after this difficult period?

Kieno Kammies speaks to SA Tourism CEO Sisa Ntshona about how the industry plans to re-emerge after the lockdown period.

Ntshona says tourism was such a key industry in the country before the outbreak and was certainly central to the WesternCape's economic recovery.

He says the industry has to apply itself now to work out how it will reinvent itself in a new era.

To that end, SA Tourism is hosting a range of webinars so begin this conversation with industry players.

The webinars are open to everybody - everyone that is in the tourism sector, and anyone else that is interested.

Sisa Ntshona, CEO - SA Tourism

He sees he has reached out to thought-leaders, hotel chains, airlines, tour operators and more to participate.

It's definitely not a finger-pointing session. We not there to point out what's wrong and say how can we hold hands to the future.

Sisa Ntshona, CEO - SA Tourism

Even SA Tourism needs to reshape how it does business. We can't look at the old template and cut and paste.

Sisa Ntshona, CEO - SA Tourism

He says everyone needs to become better informed.

We need to come up with a sector strategy and recovery plan so we can regain our market share.

Sisa Ntshona, CEO - SA Tourism

Design thinking is thinking with the end in mind, and we are absolutely obsessed with the customer.

Sisa Ntshona, CEO - SA Tourism

He says enormous amounts of data are involved in understanding what the customer is looking for.

It involves predictive data telling us what travel patterns will like and what preferences will look like.

Sisa Ntshona, CEO - SA Tourism

He says much of the shake-up in the tourism sector over the past five years has come from outside the sector, the disrupters.

So you have to invite disrupters in who are looking for opportunities.

Sisa Ntshona, CEO - SA Tourism

We are not looking at recovery, but rather reconfiguration.

Sisa Ntshona, CEO - SA Tourism

The webinar is on Monday, March 23 from 13h30 to 14h30.

Listen to the interview below:

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