Women take tourism to the next level

On Friday 16 February, Minister of Tourism, Tokozile Xasa said she was pleased that the number of applicants had doubled for the Executive Development Programme (EDP) for Women in Tourism (EDPWiT). This was during a welcome breakfast for the second cohort of the programme offered by the Unisa Graduate School of Business Leadership (SBL).

The programme launched in 2016, with a total of 20 women from organisations, representing the tourism and hospitality industry. It is an initiative of the National Department of Tourism (NDT) to empower women and build an inclusive and sustainable tourism sector. This 2018 the SBL welcomed the second intake of 40 students to the programme that was carefully crafted to allow for the development of women executives to manage and lead tourism and hospitality organisations in strategic decision-making at corporate level and in a global context.

In her welcome address, the Executive Dean (ED) of the SBL, Dr Renosi Mokate mentioned that women make up nearly 70% of the workforce within the tourism industry; with a marked under-representation of women in senior positions. These statistics underscore the importance of a programme such as the EDPWiT which focuses on the understanding of the tourism value chain and includes focus areas like leadership, marketing, finance, strategy, organisational dynamics, globalisation ethics and governance. These building blocks compliment the vision and dream of strategic partnership that was established between the SBL and the NDT, which is to empower women in the industry to put up their hands and take their rightful place in the C-suite of tourism in both the private and public sectors.

In her keynote address Minister Xasa said that Unisa occupies a strategic position in the country’s tertiary education sector and therefore this partnership gives the NDT the kind of reach that is an envy to other industries. “We are delighted about this partnership”, she said.  Being the driving force behind the programme, Ms Xasa reiterated that women must take their rightful place in the future development of tourism in the country and the current strategy to grow the industry.  She encouraged participants to not only grow within their own organisations but also to become the employers of the future.

The success of the SBL’s EDPWiT is evident, considering that more than of the women that completed the pilot programme have already been promoted at their respective workplaces. The SBL is proud to be the academic partner in this initiative and remains committed to the development women, not only in the tourism industry, but across industries and will continue contributing to the United Nation’s 2030 agenda to assist our government to address the challenges that are holding women and girls back.