Hapiloe Sello, having been newly appointed as The Johannesburg Tourism Company’s (JTC) marketing manager, has a passion for in-destination marketing and branding and believes that South Africa’s potential as both a business and leisure destination is still untapped.

The onus rests on destination marketers at all levels be it local, provincial and national to work together in sync to ensure that the country realises its full potential.

“As destination marketers we have to remember that our branding and positioning messaging has to appeal to diverse market segments; it’s as much about appealing to and reaching a 40-year old professional woman in China as it’s about matching the criteria of a New York professional conference organiser (PCO) looking at convening a convention for 1000 delegates.

It’s all about creating emotional hooks, about what Johannesburg stands for and what statement it makes about the traveller who chooses Johannesburg as their business or leisure destination.

People strive to be unique and will choose to come to Johannesburg when, in their minds they’re saying, I relate to that destination, it says a lot about me, and that is the essence of destination marketing" says Hapiloe.

“Johannesburg carries a sad legacy, we are perceived to be a crime ridden city and we don’t have the sea or an Eiffel Tower. So there’s a lot that needs to be done in transforming international perceptions: case studies in destination marketing like Dubai (essentially a desert) and Croatia (war torn just a few years ago) which are now top tourism destinations, show us what can be done,” she says.

She joins JTC after five years as a successful entrepreneur in her own market research and marketing consulting business, and 7 years combined in the banking and mining sectors prior to that. In addition, she’s just graduated with a masters degree in International Business and Marketing through NIMBAS, a Business School in the Netherlands, where she did her dissertation in business tourism in South Africa.