Themba Khumalo, Chief Marketing Officer of South African Tourism, was recently part of the SA Tourism Exco management team that completed a strategy session along with the SA Tourism team from head office. 

Khumalo took up his position in September after working at SA Tourism from 2003-2006 and has big plans for telling the South African story.

He says it is time for SA Tourism, and the travel industry at large, to become tactical about marketing the destination, and to make strides in telling our own unique stories.

One of the first things South African Tourism needs to do, he says, is separate the corporate and destination brands.

He told the industry at a travel and tourism roadshow briefing in November that the inability to react immediately to any situation, good or bad, had affected the organisation’s ability to communicate efficiently and effectively.

 

Telling SA stories 24/7

Khumalo’s vision is an ambitious one. “Our biggest play is that we are going to become an ‘always-on’ content producer to meet the needs of the industry and our consumers who are global and live in a highly digitised world.”

In November, SA Tourism released a tender for companies to pitch their skills and talents to run the Brand Content Hub. The tender will be awarded early next year.