Southern Sun launched the Southern Sun Adopt-a-Guesthouse Programme in Soweto today. The guest of honour at the launch, Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism Mr Marthinus van Schalkwyk, lauded the programme as an inspirational transformation initiative whereby Southern Sun as a 51% black-owned industry leader embraced the transformation goals of the national industry BEE initiatives and the Tourism Scorecard by providing proactive meaningful support to emerging entrepreneurs.

Southern Sun strongly supports the current transformation initiatives in the tourism industry as initiated by the Department of Tourism and Environmental Affairs. The group believes that the Adopt-a-Guesthouse Programme supports sensible transformation of the tourism industry and will add value to our industry but will also spread the benefits from tourism business to many more of our fellow South Africans.

"It is significant that the leading hotel group on the continent is also leading the way in supporting industry transformation. The operational, business and marketing expertise provided through training programmes and the exposure to potential sales channels will add sustainable business value to these guesthouses. Quality of our tourism products is crucial in marketing South Africa as a destination and it is encouraging to see that the Southern Sun Adopt-a-Guesthouse Programme also supports the guesthouses in a tangible manner through the donation of furniture and equipment that will assist them to meet stringent quality standards of the various grading bodies including the Grading Council of SA," states Minister Van Schalkwyk.

"Southern Sun has decided to lead by example in the support of industry empowerment and transformation beyond our own corporate boundaries. We have identified an opportunity through which we can add value to skills enhancement in support of the Government's high-level transformation objectives and in keeping with our own corporate social investment strategy," says Helder Pereira, Managing Director of Southern Sun Hotels.

"We have embarked on the pilot project in Soweto to develop; coach and mentor accommodation establishments that we believe have the potential to grow into sustainable enterprises that will do South Africa proud. We have identified five women-owned and operated guesthouses in the well-known Vilakazi Street area in Orlando West, Soweto as the start to a drive which we hope to see grow to a significant skills enhancement programme. As the programme gains momentum we hope to extend the initiative," says Dr Bill Gallagher, Director of Communication and Public Relations who leads the initiative.

The main aims of the Southern Sun Hotels Adopt a Guesthouse project are to:

• Empower the chosen tourism entrepreneurs with relevant operational skills through customized relevant and mentoring training
• Coach the entrepreneurs to establish and run sound financial and procurement systems
• Guide the entrepreneurs regarding effective marketing practices and enhance their marketing skills
• Guide the entrepreneurs to adopt world-class quality assurance standards
• Facilitate relevant business linkages and access to reliable and relevant networks
• Introduce an after-care programme that will promote independent sustainability
• Develop a detailed database that will be made available through reliable channels to market guesthouses

Southern Sun believes that through these interventions it should be able to add value to the professionalism of these enthusiastic entrepreneurs and create a platform for them build a sustainable business stream.

Taken from Souther Suns web site