Given a chance to advise businesses on how to make money from the multibillion rand tourism industry, SA Tourism CEO Moeketsi Mosola would simply tell them "local is lekker". And his view doesn't come from a sense of patriotism.
It was not too long ago that SA Tourism proudly proclaimed, even in its official documentation, that its primary objective was to promote SA tourism internationally and domestic tourism only "to a lesser extent".
WHAT IT MEANS
 SA Tourism is calling for a local focus by business for greater sustainability
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Mosola prefers to refer to his organisation's new-found focus on domestic tourism as "simply a recognition of global best practice", pointing out that 69% of the tourists in the world's greatest tourism destination, France, are locals. Spain comes a close second.
He enumerates several benefits of the new focus for the local industry. The infrastructure will get used to pressure and not be surprised by big events such as the 2010 soccer World Cup; good service will become a habit for business; and the creativity and resilience of the industry will be tested by how, for example, it is able to introduce products that can allow it to claim its fair share of new markets.
Mosola and his team are developing a comprehensive strategy to take the campaign beyond "Sho't left" - a successful campaign SA Tourism started a few years ago to inculcate a sense among South Africans that not only is it cool and sexy to travel, but there are several advantages to developing the habit.
He says while Sho't left dealt a blow to the public perception that tourism was expensive, most businesses have yet to embrace the idea of tailor-making packages for locals.
Says Tourism Business Council of SA CEO Mmatati Marobe: "The problem with SA is that as much as we talk about domestic tourism and look at how other countries perform, our actions do not mirror our aspirations."
Marobe says the council, the members of which include the main players in the tourism industry (major hotel chains, car-hire companies and travel agents), is to commission a study that will help it "really understand and quantify the size and opportunities that lie within the domestic market". This will be followed by a study on the African tourist, "which our industry is still very uncertain about".
Mosola believes that if, for whatever reason, business still doesn't believe that it should look inward for growth, now is the time to wake up or kiss sustainable profit goodbye.
