THIS TOURISM WEEK Number 43 – Monday, 26 June 2006
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Useful Information from the TEP
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Amongst the most interesting publications I collected at this year’s Indaba were the TEP’s Toolkit booklets.
The Tourism Enterprise Programme (TEP) was originally envisaged as a 4-year long programme in which the private sector would, through the Business Trust, “facilitate the growth and expansion of small, medium and micro business enterprises (SMMEs) in the tourism economy and thereby create job opportunities.” It was launched in June 2000 with a budget of R60 million and it was so successful that it was granted a further R80 million to take it through to June 2006 – this time with joint funding from the Business Trust and the Department of Environment Affairs and Tourism. And now the DEAT has pledged a further R185 million to carry it into the future.
During its first six years, the TEP “assisted more than 3,100 SMMEs to grow their revenues by more than R2.1 billion collectively, creating more than 30,500 jobs in the process.”
Beneficiaries are classified as ‘Direct Tourism SMMEs’ – tour operators, travel agents, crafters, B&B’s and so on – and ‘Indirect Tourism SMMEs’ – those who supply goods and services to tourism organisations. The TEP helps businesses in both groups to identify opportunities and “to equip themselves to take advantage of these opportunities through skills capacity building.”
The TEP is not primarily a funding organisation: rather, it works with individual businesses to identify and overcome impediments to their growth. Thus, rather than offering a ‘menu of services,’ the organisation tailors its support according to each business’s needs – providing professional advice (drawing up plans and strategies), operational assistance (accounting, law, tendering, certification and licensing) and marketing assistance (exhibitions, collateral, web sites). In addition, it helps to develop tourism associations “in selected areas” which focus on “coordinating government and private business to maximise opportunities for SMMEs, specifically around World Cup 2010.” And, of course, it provides assistance with improving overall quality of service and development of HIV/AIDS programmes in the workplace.
“TEP’s first and foremost service is helping Tourism SMMEs identify viable linkages or business opportunities. Once this is done, we tap our resources to make the opportunity a reality.”
Although it’s not a funding agency, the TEP does have a Training and Technical Assistance Fund “which can be used to contribute to the cost of any approved assistance on a cost-sharing basis.” Thus financial help is available for producing marketing material, for marketing trips, for procuring professional services and for paying for training – but not to finance debt or equity or for buying assets.
To qualify for support from the TEP you have to qualify as a small, medium or micro enterprise and your business has to be a legal entity which “adheres to statutory labour practices,” is registered with SARS and is considered part of the tourism economy; you also have to provide monthly turnover and employment reports and you should, preferably, qualify as a ‘historically disadvantaged enterprise / Individual (HDE / HDI).”
But here’s the thing: because it’s a business-based organisation that was founded by people with practical business experience, the TEP’s excellent publications will appeal to a much wider audience.
Three in particular caught my eye: The Website Toolkit (12 pages), the Business Plan Toolkit (14 pages) and the Legal Toolkit (55 pages). All contain the kind of short, concise and to-the-point information any business would need – but, more than that, they’re just the kind of short cut I’ve been looking for. I’ve read the weighty tomes about legal requirements and I know where to find all the information about web sites, but it’s helpful to have it all pulled together in a few short pages – and this is why I’d recommend these pamphlets to both start-up and established businesses.
I found hard copies at the TEP’s stand at the Indaba – but they’re also available as downloads from http://www.tep.co.za/ (click on “Media Centre” and go to “Document Repository” – but beware if you’ve got dial-up: they’re big files and they take their time).
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…Have a Great Tourism Week!
MARTIN HATCHUEL – BarefootWriter
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