Vusi Khanyile reflects on 15 years of Thebe Tourism Group’s Driving Vision
Between 1994 and 1998 inbound tourism numbers were increasing significantly. The industry was growing and buoyant. We believed that as the whole, the sector was growing, and that it was possible to capture some of that growth.
It was also clear to us that despite this growth, the tourism industry remained largely un-transformed, and Thebe saw an opportunity to bring this transformation to the market. We started conversations and explorations to invest in the tourism sector in 1998, with a view to ultimately develop a transformed tourism offering that would distinguish itself in the market.
Thebe set itself the goal of starting and acquiring tourism businesses that would operate in the different parts of the tourism value chain. The travel businesses were expected to develop a network of relationships and partnerships that would tap into the key tourist source markets.
We wanted to position ourselves in the tourism sector uniquely, as a tourism business that understood the South African and African heritage with an unmatched ability to package aspects of this heritage into tangible tourism products for distribution to the domestic and international tourism markets.
Thebe saw the need to create financial scale within its tourism business, in order to make its tourism business more robust. And so, competitive and sustainable specific financial targets were set for Thebe Tourism Group (TTG).
We can look to several achievements as indicators of our success through the years: Thebe’s presence in the Business Tourism space through Thebe Reed; The Cape Point Concession now a 100% TTG held business, and others.
That said,we must recognise that it hasn’t all been smooth sailing. The significant achievement for TTG is that the business still exists despite the numerous setbacks and direct hits it received along the way. I would like to recognise the outstanding contribution of Monwabisi Fandeso and Jerry Mabena and their teams in this regard.
The dream of building a holistic African tourism business of scale remains vivid and focused, now more than ever.