South Africa’s Tourism Transformation Fund (TTF) is making strides in assisting black-owned tourism businesses, having so far provided support to 23 projects valued at R272.6 million (€13.7m), with potential to create in excess of 1 000 jobs.
Launched in 2017 through the Department of Tourism (DoT) and the National Empowerment Fund (NEF), the TTF provides a combination of grant funding, debt financing and equity contributions to facilitate investment in the tourism sector by black entrepreneurs. Any support for qualifying small enterprises is dependent on an assessment of the commercial viability of the proposed project.
Representatives from the DoT (led by Deputy Minister Fish Mahlalela) and the NEF unpacked the fund’s impacts at an event at Graskop Gorge Lift Company – the first business to receive TTF support – on Mpumalanga’s Panorama Route on Thursday, May 23.
Of the 23 projects supported by the fund – including lodges, hotels, Graskop Gorge Lift and a venue…