It takes a brave person to start a small business. It takes an even braver soul to start a small tourism business in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, when travellers were scarce if not totally absent.

But that’s exactly what Ingrid Carelse, of Cape Town, did in June 2021, when she was retrenched from her job. She’s now in the business of ‘making strangers’ travel fantasies come true’; her company IC Africa Travel and Tours creates bespoke tourist experiences of Southern and East Africa.

Despite being only two years old, the company is a 2022/23 grantee of Cape Town Tourism’s (CTT) Board Development Fund (BDF), receiving ZAR50 000 in cash as well as coaching, mentoring, media and marketing, and complementary CTT membership.

As a small business owner who has had to learn to do everything herself, Carelse says the mentorship will be of most value. She believes that ‘there’s enough room for every tourism business to make an honest and successful living. So, the competition must continue to be considered healthy and a way to offer variety’.

Carelse is just one of many small tourism operators in Cape Town that have benefited from the BDF grant in the 10 years since it was established to support SMEs in the industry.

‘Our goal is to support these local businesses using an integrated approach, not just providing cash and, as a result, we hope to encourage other organisations to invest in supporting these small businesses too,’ says CTT chair Wahida Parker.

Small business’ contribution to tourism has long been recognised. As the International Labour Organisation (ILO) summarises, ‘when it comes to accommodation, [SMEs] play a key role in providing popular options such as bed & breakfasts, guesthouses, self-catering holiday apartments and home rentals, backpacker lodges and camping places. These businesses also serve as the primary providers of tourism road transport as well as tourism activity’.

However, small operators – because of their size and often, their informal nature – are also less likely to be prepared for business interruptions, so if they suffer, the whole value chain suffers, according to the ILO.

It stands to reason that it’s in the best interests of everyone in the tourism industry to support small operators.

Tourism KwaZulu-Natal (TKZN), the provincial government’s tourism body, has a had some success with its enterprise development programme, helping 144 small tourism enterprises last year. Now it’s targeting the youth, holding a Youth in Tourism seminar in Ixopo in June this year.

TKZN’s acting CEO Nhlanhla Khumalo told IOL at the time that that youth-led tourism enterprises ‘fall within three subsectors of the tourism industry, which is the accommodation subsector, hospitality subsector and also travel services subsector. We have three funding agencies that provide financial support programmes for SMMEs that we are working with, so that the youth in tourism will be able to understand the requirements in terms of how to access financial support’.

The private sector in South Africa is also doing its part. For example, Sun International – which owns, among others, the iconic Sun City in South Africa’s North West province and has a market cap of ZAR8.7 billion – has channelled its passion for helping SMEs in South Africa into its enterprise and supplier development (ESD) programme. The programme covers everything from food and beverages, to logistics and marketing; and its assistance comes in many forms, whether it is organising capital at interest-free rates, skills training and mentorship; or providing rent-free offices.

The company invested ZAR42.3 million in supplier development in 2022, reaching 129 beneficiaries, while ZAR12 million went to enterprise development, assisting 50 enterprises. One of the beneficiaries is Johannesburg-based Go-Go Shuttles, which received a ZAR650 000 interest-free loan to expand its fleet and develop an online booking system. Founded in 2013 by Kenny Nkuna, Go-Go Shuttles specialises in airport transfer, park and ride, point-to-point transportation, school transport as well as sporting and social event transport services.

‘We will go anywhere for our clients, from urban to rural areas. We pride ourselves in our ability to provide our clients with safe, quality and reliable transportation,’ says Nkuna.

Many hotel groups in South Africa support businesses through similar ESD programmes. Southern Sun and Tsogo Sun, now separate entities following the unbundling of Southern Sun from Tsogo Sun, support the SME community through the Entrepreneurs initiative, currently helping 162 enterprises in various industries across South Africa.

Tsogo Sun’s ESD investment totalled ZAR41 million in 2022/23, with ZAR5 million allocated to enterprise development and ZAR36 million to supplier development. Founded back in 2005, the Entrepreneurs initiative started by publicising the services of guesthouses and lodges, followed by introducing a booking platform. It has since expanded its assistance to a range of aligned services, including cleaning and gardening and even a local detergent manufacturer.

The programme helps market SMEs through its Legacy short film series on YouTube. Among those featured is the successful Seven Sisters Vineyard, in the heart of Stellenbosch’s winelands. Founded by self-taught wine entrepreneur Vivian Kleynhans in 2005, the business started off in a flat behind Kleynhans’ home. In 2009, through its Land Redistribution for Agricultural Development programme, the South African government granted Kleynhans and her family a barren piece of land, on which they planted vines and built a restaurant, tasting room and storage sheds. The Seven Sisters brand is now available in 42 states in the US, where Walmart is its biggest retailer.

For its part, City Lodge reveals in its 2022 integrated report that it is providing training to 20 SMEs in its supply chain, on ethical business practices with a view to their receiving Ethically Aware accreditation.

In addition, it provided financial support to a group of fresh produce suppliers so they could buy farmland north of Johannesburg to start small-scale farming operations, ‘which have steadily grown and now supply some of the country’s largest retailers’.

In June last year, Marriott International celebrated the graduation of its first cohort of 10 in its 12-month leadership development programme. Run with the University of Stellenbosch Business School, the Khulanathi programme annually selects a group of talented South Africans on the fast track to leadership in the hospitality industry.

Meanwhile, born out of the Hilton hotel group’s commitment to drive sustainable travel and tourism in Africa, it launched its Wild Spirit Wines of Africa Beverage Conservation programme in South Africa last year, in partnership with the WWF and beverage distributor Under the Influence. ‘Hotels can have a powerful impact in their communities by sourcing products locally and empowering local artisans, farmers, and small businesses,’ says Jan van der Putten, Hilton’s regional vice-president of operations.

Under the programme, 11 of the group’s hotels across Africa and the Indian Ocean offer beverages from South African wine farms and spirit distilleries that ‘champion biodynamic and regenerative farming practices, environmental conservation, and protection of water catchment areas that meet the global best standards in sustainable travel and tourism’.

The programme highlights South Africa’s ‘awe-inspiring wildlife, biodiversity, and magnificent winelands and distilleries that all contribute to the country’s vibrant tourism sector’, according to Van der Putten.

Holiday rental platform Airbnb, meanwhile, runs its own Entrepreneurship Academy, which it started in South Africa in 2017 and has rolled out to other centres worldwide, including Kenya, Colombia and Thailand. The academy equips invited participants with skills, practical tools and the support they need to use technology to access and succeed on the Airbnb platform as tourism entrepreneurs, either as hosts or as providers of experiences. Two days of intensive training is followed by three months of remote support.

One of its success stories is Mhinti Pato, who runs Pato Tours in Cape Town, offering township tours, beach walks, ebike tours, street art walks and hikes. Ten percent of her profits go towards the Sakhisizwe Youth Development project, an after-school programme she founded in Imizamo Yethu. ‘It didn’t only transform my life, but it went further in transforming people around me and also my community,’ says Pato of the Entrepreneurship Academy.

Last year Airbnb took the programme further north to Waterberg in Limpopo, where it has formed three-year partnerships with the district municipality, the Biosphere Reserve and the Lapalala Wilderness School to highlight the region’s tourism potential. The Waterberg area is of archaeological significance having sites with evidence of humanity dating back 3 million years.

‘As the cost-of-living crisis bites, it is critically important that we continue to lower the barriers to becoming a tourism entrepreneur to ensure that everyone can benefit from tourism,’ says Velma Corcoran, Airbnb’s regional lead for Middle East Africa. ‘We’re truly excited to be working collaboratively with such strong partners at a local level, looking to embrace the changes in travel. We believe that the Waterberg is a pilot region for this way of working, which we will aim to scale to and activate in other areas, in order to create a more diverse and inclusive tourism economy.’

By working together, tourism operators big and small – whether it’s Airbnb or a small tour company in Cape Town – continue to champion each other and grow the industry.

Images: Gallo/Getty Images, Alamy