2010 – Help for Small Businesses

South African Tourism CEO, Moeketsi Mosola South Africa was speaking at a business forum hosted by the University of the Free State in Bloemfontein when he announced that for the first time in its history, Fifa will be contracting non-hotel accommodation (eg national parks, B&B’s, lodges, guest houses) during 2010.

However, in order to qualify to be contracted the establishment needs to obtain a grading rating from the Tourism Grading Council of South Africa. Establishments can apply to TEP for assistance to partly cover these costs. TEP (Tourism Enterprise Programme) is a R170-million investment by the Environment Affairs and Tourism department to stimulate small, medium and micro enterprise (SMME) development in the tourism sector.

Mosola pointed out to that accommodation is not the only area where people should be looking as there are many other opportunities for 2010 – for example in the support services like housekeeping, food and beverage supply and laundry services.

In writing this, I took a look at the Tourism Grading Council website. The grading process looks time-consuming and bureaucratic, not to mention expensive. The process is still very much document driven but the instructions are reasonably clear and the criteria documents are available to be downloaded directly from the website. The cost is not inconsiderable – if you have a 3-room establishment the cost is R1,292 (R1,236 + R56) and if you have a 30-room establishment the cost is R3,373 (R3,148 +R225) and if you have anything over 151 rooms, the cost is (R5,279 + R225) R5,504.

But the establishment of standards and having a grading system which serves as a communication tool to customers is great. Of course such a system is only as good as the high (world class) standards that are set, the frequency that those standards are revisited and updated, and the organisation and people who manage and enforce them. Gearing up to 2010 and putting in place these systems could indeed help move South Africa towards one of the world’s top destinations of which Mosola talks!