Foreword
by Tourism World Chief Executive, Sadha Naidoo

The value and urgency of tourism and tourism-related training and skills development cannot be over-emphasised. With South Africa and, indeed, Africa’s road to the 2010 FIFA Soccer World Cup™ becoming increasingly shorter, we must collectively ensure that the readiness of the hosts to the greatest show on earth is not left wanting.

“Failure in relation to skills is not an option. South Africa needs a skills revolution in which tourism benefits. The people to be trained are needed by employers who must take greater responsibility than has been the case thus far to invest in human capital. In tourism more than in any other sector, people are our greatest assets”.

These are the words of South Africa’s Deputy President, Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, in her Opening Address at the Tourism INDABA on 6 May 2006.

As we consider the fact that the South African government has identified tourism as one of the key sectors that will contribute towards achieving 6% growth in Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by 2010, we are reminded of the considerable challenge facing government and tourism industry role-players during the next few years.

It is against this backdrop that I proudly present TOURISM WORLD, a leading South African Training and Skills Development Company with a vision to FREE the potential of the South and Southern African tourism community through strategic and innovative training and development programmes. The company began operating five years ago with an initial focus on training in Event Management, mainly in Durban and surrounding areas. Over the past five years the scope of programmes and products has grown in number and evolved in focus, to provide holistic Training and Skills Development solutions across a wide array of tourism and tourism-related categories.

Today, we have fine-tuned our innovative programmes and products, which have been strategically designed to address priority tourism and tourism-related skills gaps and are steeped in the principles of Responsible Tourism. This evolutionary process has led to the company’s need to re-position itself in a manner that more accurately represents the critical role it is already playing in enhancing the landscape of the South and Southern African tourism industries.

TOURISM WORLD boasts more than 30 THETA (Tourism Hospitality & Sports Education and Training Authority) –accredited Training and Development products, in addition to a variety of other customised programmes aimed at directly addressing client’s needs.

FREE the Passion of your employees, the Spirit of your company and the Potential of the tourism industry…with TOURISM WORLD as your partner on the ROAD to 2010 and BEYOND!