Responding to our latest poll exploring the dynamics of female leadership and ownership in tourism, a plurality of Tourism Update readers (47%) believe that women are well represented within leadership and ownership roles in the sector.

While the result is encouraging, it is also identical to the same poll we conducted last year during South Africa’s Women’s Month, potentially illustrating some stagnation in the progress of appointing women in these key positions.

A significant proportion of readers (35%) believe women are under-represented within these roles compared with 38% of poll respondents last year. The remaining 18% said they were “unsure” on the issue.

Data released by the Department of Tourism in 2022 indicated that, despite making up nearly 70% of the tourism workforce, women held less than 40% of managerial positions in South Africa. In general management roles, this dropped to 20% and to 5-8% of board positions.

Is golf tourism a hole-in-one?

As we reported last week, SATSA is upping its efforts to enter golf tourism into the mainstream tourism conversation for South Africa.

Globally, research indicates that this niche tourism sector is valued at over US$23 billion and is projected to grow to over US$35 billion in value by 2029.

Operators within the space believe golf tourism offers exceptional potential to attract high-spending customers across the leisure and business travel sectors. We want to know if you agree.

Our poll question this week is: