By Workplace staff
Soweto has long been the first choice of destination for tourists to Johannesburg, especially foreign tourists.
With its heritage, history, culture and unique position in the liberation struggle, Soweto is the most visited township in the country.
This has prompted the Johannesburg Tourism Company to start a data base of service providers to the hospitality and tourism industries in Soweto.
The project follows on the heels of the establishment of the Soweto Tourism Information Centre at the Walter Sisulu Square of Dedication in Kliptown.
The Johannesburg Tourism Company, a Section 21 company with a board drawn exclusively from the private sector and funded by the Johannesburg City Council, is staffing the centre.
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Research for the Soweto data base is being conducted by seven honours students at the University of Johannesburg as part of their tourism studies.
For now, their interviews and research will be confined, because of the extensive scope of Soweto tourism, to tour operators and tour guides but the data base will later be expanded to include such service providers as restaurants, shebeens and B & B establishments.
The students will also provide an assessment to the Johannesburg Tourism Company of the state of tourism in Soweto in respect of such areas as viability, sustainability and links between tourist organisations.
"With the establishment of the Soweto Tourism Information Centre and of the data base, we are seeing the fine-tuning of a tourism development programme incorporating business and marketing strategies with the aim of growing tourism and generating sustainable jobs in the industry in Soweto," says Jaco Engelbrecht, business manager at the Johannesburg Tourism Company.
Engelbrecht says he is particularly excited about the fact that young people are becoming actively involved in tourism development
in Soweto.
"The tourism industry is a growth industry and young people need to get an in-depth insight into what the industry is all about so that they can make a really valuable contribution to shaping strategy and playing a decisive part in its implementation," he says.
On a broader level, Engelbrecht says the Johannesburg Tourism Company will be seeking even greater involvement of young people in research projects on various tourism activities through close relationship with other tertiary institutions such as the University of the Witwatersrand.
Sidewell Mnisi, the team leader of the students working on the Soweto data base, is also enthusiastic about expanding the concept.
"At the end of the day," he says, "we are hoping that our study can be used in studies of other townships in Gauteng and even other provinces."
On the practical results of the work his team is doing, Mnisi says: "Our aim is to help create incisive understanding of Soweto as it is one of the primary tourism destinations in Gauteng.
"We also hope that the tourism industry as a whole will benefit from the insight we will be providing of what tourism service providers need."
- This article was originally published on page 1 of The Star on August 07, 2005
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