How
to...?
Tips and tools for South African tourism companies on local procurement,
products and partnerships
Purpose
of project
The purpose of the ‘How To…?’ series is to assist
tourism companies to take advantage of opportunities to contribute
more to the local economy. The intended audience is tourism companies
in South or Southern Africa that would like to do more, but could benefit
from practical advice on how.
Other guidelines already describe what to do, and why, for more responsible, sustainable or empowered tourism. This How To series focuses on how to do it. It provides practical tips drawing from the experiences of successes and failures.
Practical
outputs - **hot off the press**
In addition to an executive
summary, there are four briefs in the series.
These are:
1. Boosting procurement from local businesses
Full brief in PDF
2. Stimulating local cultural and heritage products
Full brief in PDF
3. Building local partnerships
Full brief in PDF
4. Setting corporate priorities and managing internal change.
Full brief in PDF
The first three focus on different types of local linkages and thus may be used by different operational staff (chefs, buyers, guest relations officers, lodge managers etc). The fourth brief gives tips on how to manage corporate change in order for any of the first three to be effective in the long-term.
Background
Although many tourism companies make substantial charitable donations
to local causes from their pre-tax profit, these are entirely separate
from day to day business and are not self-sustain¬ing. On the other
hand, the local linkages outlined in the ‘How To…?’
series harness the core competencies of busi¬nesses to create and
maintain sustainable relationships with local communities.
There are many incentives for South African tourism companies to adopt more responsible and ‘pro-poor’ behaviour: BEE and CSR objectives, government’s procurement, legislation and scorecard, their neighbours’ expectations of benefit, and their clients’ growing interest in distinctive products and holiday ethics, all are reasons why tourism should increase its local economic impact. The South African Responsible Tourism Guidelines give them guidance on what they can do. However, there is little guidance on how to do it.
Companies that have started doing business differently to increase their local impact have had to learn the hard way, about challenges and strategies that work. It is time to draw on existing experience to learn lessons about implementation and share them with the rest of the industry.
Who
we are
The project is a collaboration between the Tourism Business Council
of South Africa, the Department of Trade and Industry and the Department
of Environmental Affairs, who are producing the Tools, Wilderness Safaris
and Spier Holdings who are sponsors and are contributing their considerable
experience, the International Financial Corporation, which is funding
the work, and Business Linkages in Tourism (BLT) and the Overseas Development
Institute (ODI) who are implementing the project.
The ‘How To…?’ series draws heavily on three years’ experience of the programme ‘Piloting Pro-Poor Tourism in the Private Sector’ in which staff of BLT and ODI have been working with Wilderness Safaris, Spier, Sun City, Southern Sun, and Ker and Downey to facilitate pro-poor practice at 5 pilot sites. Examples and lessons from pilot sites are drawn out and complemented by material from other tourism operators and organisations.
For a 6-page overview of the Pro-Poor Tourism pilots project click here
Communication
