The tourism industry in South Africa is playing a central role in terms of moving the country's economy to another level, but due to the potential constraints of the legacy of the previous regime, a lot more needs to be done in terms of transformation.

This was partly the reason why Yarona Management Consultants conducted a one-day workshop on transformation in the tourism industry on Monday.

The transformation workshop, facilitated by the Pretoria-based company, was attended by various tourism stakeholders at the Makhado information centre. According to Yarona's project manager, Mr Thando Qamarana, his company is contracted to the Tourism Black Economic Empowerment Charter Council. “We've been given the responsibility of conducting the baseline study on the state of transformation in the tourism industry across the country’s nine province. Our research centred around the potential constraints hindering transformation that could lead to the previously disadvantaged communities’ benefitting from the industry,” he said.

Qamarana added that it was against this background that the first priority of poverty reduction in the tourism industry was viewed to be transformation. He further added that, even at Makhado, he discovered that the challenges hindering people from the disadvantaged communities also include lack of information, resources, funds, social development and skills. “Our research is also focused on those critical elements which have been mainly caused by the legacy of the apartheid government. We also want to know the state of transformation for listed large, medium and small tourism enterprises in all the regions,” he said. Qamarana said that there is a database for tourism enterprises that is being developed and the challenge was that, as the small enterprises were not covered in the database, the workshops in the regions were playing a central role in identifying the small tourism enterprises.

The assistant local economic development officer at the Thulamela municipality, Shonisani Sigudu, said that the workshop was beneficial since it was aimed at addressing the imbalances of the past and at showing the majority of the South African society more opportunities in the tourism industry.

The manager of Limpopo Tourism and Parks for the Vhembe region, Mr Mavhungu Elias Musitha, indicated that the workshop was an eye opener for his office and other stakeholders. “While the majority of our people do not understand the whole concept of BEE, this workshop rooted out the bottle-knecks that have been blocking black people from benefitting effectively from this industry. We regard this workshop as a blueprint. As soon as we receive the recommendations from the facilitators, we will develop a strategic plan for implementing those recommendations, together with our stake-holders,” he said.