What are the critical success factors for positioning South Africa as a major business tourism destination?

Hapiloe Sello, newly appointed Marketing Manager at the Johannesburg Tourism Company, spent the best part of the past year seeking the answers to that question. 

Her detailed examination of that crucial, but complex, issue earned her a Masters in International Business and Marketing Management from the prestigious Nimbas Graduate School of Management in Utrecht in the Netherlands.

In September 2005 she added the Masters to her graduate belt that includes a BA in Political Science and Administration from the National University of Lesotho in 1989, a Post Graduate Diploma in Management at the Wits Business School in 1991 and, in 1997, success in the Management Development Programme at the University of Stellenbosch Business School.

Now Hapiloe, as part of the team at The Johannesburg Tourism Company, is helping mould the critical success factors that will further build Johannesburg as a major international business tourism destination. 

Her professional career has seen Hapiloe match her impressive academic highlights with notable achievements at the coalface:  seven years in the banking and mining sectors and five years as a successful entrepreneur. 

The positions she has held have included Head of the Research Development and Transfer Unit at Nedcor and General Manager – Business Development at the Marketing Federation of Southern Africa.

She displayed entrepreneurial flair as a partner in the company Co-ordinated Management Consulting between 1998 and 2003, leading various projects in the areas of Marketing and Organisational Development for a cross-section of clients, among them the Airports Company of South Africa, the Industrial Development Corporation, the South African Broadcasting Corporation and the South African Local Government Association.

“I have a passion for in-destination marketing and branding,” says Hapiloe. “I believe that South Africa’s potential as both a business and leisure destination is still untapped and I am giving my all in my new position to build Brand Johannesburg.”

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

 “As destination marketers we have to remember at all times that our branding and positioning messaging has to appeal to diverse market segments,” she says.  It’s as much about appealing to and reaching a 40 year old professional woman in China as it is about matching the criteria of a New York professional conference organiser looking at destination venues for a convention of a thousand delegates.”

Looking at her challenge in growing business tourism to Johannesburg specifically, she says it’s all about creating emotional hooks, about what Johannesburg stands for and what statement it makes about the traveller who chooses Johannesburg as a business or leisure destination.

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

She is far from fazed about the perspective of Johannesburg as a crime-ridden city, or a city that doesn’t have the sea or a mountain or an Eiffel Tower.  “We need to transform international perceptions,” she says, pointing to the fact that both Dubai, essentially a desert, and Croatia, war torn just a few years ago, are now top tourism destinations.  “They show us just what can be done,” says Hapiloe.

According to Hapiloe the Johannesburg Tourism Company will be launching a number of campaigns in the New Year which aim to capture the essence of Jo’burg, its vibrancy, its spirit. “We need to get Jo’burgers excited about their city. After all they’re our best ambassadors,” says Hapiloe.

For relaxation, Hapiloe reaches for a book or magazine.  Current affairs is a must-read, and for a change of pace she dips into thrillers.  She has a passion for music particularly jazz - Cassandra Wilson is a favourite. 

Travel is another hobby which takes her on the odd occasion into Europe, North America or Asia.  “Now, when I get the chance,” she says, “I’m setting my eyes on Africa, which I haven’t explored as much as would have liked to.”