SDM MMEs benefit from the District Tourism Routes Roadshow
Sekhukhune
Following their fruitful participation in the Africa Travel Indaba and Trade Show held at Durban in Kwa-Zulu Natal earlier this year, the Sekhukhune District Municipality (SDM) has organised the Sekhukhune Tourism Routes Roadshow for the local SMMEs in the district to visit important historical, heritage and cultural sites.
The tour was aiming to create an opportunity for the SMMEs to gain knowledge of the rich history of the Sekhukhune Heritage and Cultural sites to enhance market accessibility.
The tour was also set to create an inter district relationship with other municipalities and develop exchange programmes.
A total of fourteen Sekhukhune based SMMEs participated in the heritage tour with specific objective of creating market access for the district’s vast array of African leisure tourism products. They were Boeketlong Guest House & Lodge, African Treasure Travel Agency, Mokatani Fashion, Pitsi Grafters, Sekhukhune Lodge & Guest House, BKT Lodge, Pretty Travel Agency, Thaba Moshate Casino, Mohlaletse Guest House, Baroka Fashion, Lansi Biltong, Travel With Mvula, Ashcor Travel Agency and Esibayeni Guest House.
The SDM Department of Planning and Economic Development (PED) and the Local Economic Development (LED) unit were mandated to coordinate the programme, which was set to capacitate entrepreneurs, mainly SMMEs, to access market and enhance the economic growth of the district and reduce unemployment.
The tour event provided and exposed SMMEs in tourism with various opportunities and benefits of an open conversation about the businesses market and its efficacy. The programme created and shared an interest in increasing employment and creating appropriate commitments by potential employers in the district and beyond.
Furthermore, drawing leaf from the Africa Travel Indaba exhibition, the tour positively identified solutions to deal with backlog in job creation, resolving that each of the social partners and stakeholders can work together to improve the likelihood of employment growth in the Sekhukhune District.
The tour exposed the SMMEs to directly tackle other challenges they faced such as, lacking knowledge of the historical heritage and culture of the Sekhukhune District that hinders the ability to market the district, low-level preparation to deliver to the maximum expectation, inadequate budget to expose more SMMEs to the exhibition and lack of skills development to effectively enhance production growth.
The department will organize a skills development workshop for the local SMMEs to improve the business knowledge of the SMMEs to enhance productivity.
SDM in partnership with its development agency, Sekhukhune Development Agency (SDA), Small Enterprise Development Agency SEDA, Sekhukhune TVET College Center for Entrepreneurship, National Department of Tourism and Limpopo Tourism Agency, participated in the programmes.
