South Africa’s tourism industry has the potential to boost the country’s economy and create significant employment opportunities. An ambitious new private sector initiative launched by the Youth Employment Service (YES) and financial services group, Sanlam, is expected to be a game-changer for this critical sector.
Youth4Tourism, aims to bring together a range of businesses to help unlock this opportunity through the creation of over 1,000 youth jobs in phase one, supporting thousands of SMEs in the tourism value chain across South Africa.
According to The World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC), Africa’s travel and tourism sector is expected to create almost 14 million new jobs over the next decade, with growth of 6.8% annually between 2022-2032. The SA tourism sector, according to Statistics South Africa, is larger than both the manufacturing and agriculture sectors, and is structurally key to growing the domestic economy through both leisure and business travel.
Phase one of the project has placed youth across South Africa to promote and support tourist attractions in their hometowns and surrounds through creative outputs like photography and videography. These youths will help draw local and international tourists to a wide variety of destinations, attractions and tourism providers to increase their footfall and earnings.
“South Africa’s tourism sector is rebounding rapidly from the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic and is a major driving engine to create youth jobs and drive economic growth. Through this initiative, we hope to add further momentum to the sector,” said YES CEO, Ravi Naidoo.
Paul Hanratty, CEO of Sanlam, says: “Sanlam is purpose-led and committed to empowering all Africans to be financially confident, secure, and prosperous. This must start with our young people. They must be cherished and given everything they need to live their most meaningful lives. By investing in our youth, we foster pride for our nation.”
Get Involved and change the face of SA tourism
“YES has already placed the first 650 youth in the Youth4Tourism initiative in implementation partners across six provinces. These youth will be developing skills in content creation and ecotourism”, says Naidoo.
“We need businesses across sectors to join the movement and create diverse work opportunities for youth within the sector. The opportunities are endless: tour guides, event coordinators, content creators, concierges, chefs, resort managers, travel agents and many, many more.”
Organisations can join phase one of this movement in three ways:
- Funding of youth jobs through innovative placement partners identified by YES. This can form part of their B-BBEE or social impact initiatives.
- Identify events, conferences, and content creation opportunities for these talented young South Africans to create content to showcase South Africa as tourism destination via the YCC “gig” work platform.
- Contribute hardware including photography and videography equipment for a Section18A tax break.
For further information on this project, please e-mail youth4tourism@yes4youth.co.za.
