In this section: Bunny Bhoola, Robyn Christie, Mmatsatsi Marobe and more…
Bunny Bhoola
Managing Director
African Link Tours & Travel
Tel: +27 33 345 3175
www.africanlink.co.za
One of South Africa’s top tourism entrepreneurs, Bunny Bhoola has grown her business, African Link Tours and Travel, steadily over the last decade, with hard work and a well developed business sense.
Bhoola holds a B Tech in Tourism and in 2003 was recognised by the Pietermaritzburg Chamber of Business as the recipient of its Entrepreneur of the Year Award. She is a committed member of the Pietermaritzburg business community and has served her province, KwaZulu-Natal, equally well, being a long-standing member and former chairperson of the KZN chapter of the Southern Africa Tourism Services Association (SATSA). She now serves in her own right on the Satsa executive committee and is president of Pietermaritzburg Tourism.
Bhoola has also been appointed to the board of Tourism KwaZulu-Natal and has won both an Impumulelo Award and a Women in Business Award, granted by Business Partners in KZN. She also serves on the Tourism Business Forum for KZN and is president of the SKAL International KwaZulu-Natal Midlands Club.
Robyn Christie
CEO
Asata
Tel: +27 11 327 7803
www.asata.co.za
Robyn Christie, like many other people in the retail travel industry, began her career in tourism working for Budget Travel. A long and varied career followed in diverse industries from banking to pharmaceuticals, but it was the 10 years she spent marketing and selling a leading charge card that ultimately returned her to the travel industry.
She says that while she still enjoys the experience of travel, her passion really lies with the people in this dynamic industry. Her portfolio as CEO of the Association of South African Travel Agents is diverse and she says she remains challenged by the complexity of travel but is rewarded by the energy that prevails.
Mmatsatsi Marobe
CEO
Tourism Business Council of South Africa
Tel: +27 12 654 7525
www.tbcsa.org.za
Mmatsatsi Marobe’s career in travel and tourism followed a spell in academia after completing her bachelor’s degree in social science and humanities at the University of Cape Town, she occupied a part-time position in the UCT anthropology department.
She joined the travel and tourism sector in 1996 when she became responsible for strategic marketing at what was then the National Parks Board (now SANParks). This was followed by appointments at both the KwaZulu-Natal and Limpopo tourism authorities. During this time, Marobe also trained as a tourism guide for KZN, Limpopo and Gauteng.
She joined the Tourism Business Council of South Africa (TBCSA) at the start of 2006 as chief operating officer and took over the position of CEO on October 1 2007. Marobe holds an honours degree in business management and is studying for an MA in organisational management with the University of Phoenix in the United States. The TBCSA is the representative body for the private sector in the tourism industry, helping to create an environment for the growth and development of the industry.
Wanda Mkutshulwa
Head: Communications
South African National Parks
Tel: +27 12 426 5209
www.sanparks.org.za
Wanda Mkutshulwa joined South African National Parks (SANParks) in 2003. She was tasked with the responsibility of communicating the vision and mission of South Africa’s premier conservation organisation, as well as building a solid local and international reputation for SANParks.
During her tenure SANParks has posted some major successes, including two major public campaigns, the Kudu Awards and South African National Parks Week, as well as a thriving and vibrant website community forum.
Since 2006 she has also presented several papers on communication/public relations related topics in several seminars and conferences. For the past four years she has been a member of the panel of judges for the Mail & Guardian Greening the Future Awards and the convenor for the (SANParks) Kudu Awards panel. Her educational qualifications are in journalism and media studies and international relations (political studies), which were all completed at Rhodes University.
Mkutshulwa worked briefly in media, both in the print and broadcast fields, before joining the Commission on Restitution of Land Rights in 1999, initially in the Eastern Cape, and eventually as national communications coordinator in the office of the chief land claims commissioner.
Beulah Mosupye
CEO
Tourism Empowerment Council of South Africa
Tel: +27 11 384 7630
www.tourismbeecharter.co.za
In a career spanning over 15 years, Beulah Mosupye worked for a major South African bank in both the personal and business markets. She moved on to Safika Technologies, one of South Africa’s leading empowerment companies, as a business development officer and was later appointed group marketing manager. There she directed strategic resource project management on key accounts and marketing development for the company.
Mosupye honed her skills in marketing and communications at pre-eminent agencies where she was instrumental in the sponsorship management arena, focusing on emerging markets. She has developed extensive experience with banking, healthcare, tourism and telecommunications companies. Prior to joining the Tourism Empowerment Council of South Africa she successfully managed her own marketing and communications agency, africanfire, where she continues to be a shareholder. She sits on the Fedhasa national board and is a trustee of the African bank Development Trust.
A participant in the World Economic Forum, she has studied economics, business to business marketing, and customer relationship management. Her areas of interest are women and youth development for the creation of a competitive nation and building sustainable corporate citizens who subscribe to the tenets of triple bottom line reporting.
Didi Moyle
COO
South African Tourism
Tel: +27 11 895 3000
www.southafrica.net
Didi Moyle served for five years on the executive of South African Tourism as the chief research officer and before being appointed chief operations officer in June 2007. She set up the strategic research unit and was responsible for starting the organisation’s e-business department.
She is also credited with heading the project that developed the tourism growth strategy that drives South Africa’s tourism marketing globally. Her wealth of tourism experience and knowledge also includes the two years she notched up as special adviser to the former minister of environmental affairs and tourism, Mohammed Valli Moosa, and another two years with the minister of transport in South Africa’s first democratically elected government.
In addition, she has the benefit of a solid media knowledge gleaned from her experiences as a journalist on leading South African metropolitan newspapers and a stint as assistant editor of Femina magazine. She has a BSoc Sc Hons political science (University of Natal, Durban) and clinical psychology Hons (University of Cape Town).
Jennifer Seif
Executive Director
Fair Trade in Tourism South Africa
Tel: +27 12 342 2945
www.fairtourismsa.org.za
Jennifer Seif has been executive director of Fair Trade in Tourism South Africa (FTTSA) for eight years. She holds a number of academic qualifications in economics, history, social anthropology and business administration, and is currently completing her PhD at the University of Pretoria, focusing on tourism certification and destination competitiveness.
Prior to joining FTTSA, she was product development manager for the North West Parks and Tourism Board in South Africa and before that post, she worked in academia in South Africa (University of North West, University of Cape Town) and the United States. She still lectures occasionally on responsible tourism and is the architect of a Unisa seminar on sustainable tourism.
She serves on a number of boards both in her personal capacity and on behalf of FTTSA, including the Tourism Business Council of South Africa (since 2004) and Fair Trade South Africa (since 2005). She has twice been honoured by the Ashoka Citizens Base Initiative for excellence in non-profit resource mobilisation.
Wendy Tlou
Global Manager: Communications
South African Tourism
Tel: +27 11 895 3000
www.southafrica.net
A seasoned public relations and communications specialist, Wendy Tlou joined SA Tourism in October 2003 as marketing and communications manager in Frankfurt, Germany before being promoted in March 2006 to marketing communications manager in London, SA Tourism’s biggest overseas source market.
She took up her current position as global manager: communications at South African Tourism’s head office in Johannesburg in June 2007. Her principal responsibility is to deliver on the tourism growth strategy through the development and enhancement of the organisation’s global brand communications strategy.
She is also responsible for developing global communication plans; assisting the regional and country teams in their execution of communication plans as approved by SA Tourism’s board and executive management; and for corporate communications, as well as the profiling and reputation management of SA Tourism to its key stakeholders, including the media.