Tourism Minister Patricia de Lille has signed an agreement with global tech giant, Google, aimed at promoting South Africa as a prime tourist destination and to provide training and support to the sector in digital training.

The Minister and Dr Alistair Mokoena, Country Director for Google South Africa, signed the agreement in Cape Town on Monday.

This partnership is in line with de Lille’s mission to grow tourism to its full potential, unlock the power of technology in the sector and increase arrivals to South Africa to support economic growth and job creation.

“In an era of digital transformation, collaboration between technology giants and government entities has the potential to reshape industries and enhance public services. As stated in the Tourism Sector Green Paper, there is a ‘lack of support mechanisms for the (tourism) sector, particularly SMMEs, to adapt to a digital future and other technological advancements.

“This visionary partnership between Google and the Ministry of Tourism, focuses on non-monetary exchanges to leverage each parties’ strengths for mutual benefits,” de Lille said.

Google intends to provide support to the Ministry to achieve its mandate through providing access to its initiatives and programmes in South Africa that are beneficial to the sector.

Mokoena said they were excited to partner with the Department of Tourism and to sign the letter of intent which aims to position South Africa as a great tourist destination.

“As a company that prides itself in organising the world’s information and making it universally accessible and useful, we look forward to rolling out various programmes in conjunction with the department, to fast track digital transformation in the sector, helping with digital skills and showcasing South African tourism through our Google Arts & Culture platform,” Mokoena said.

According to the department, the primary goal of this collaboration is to harness Google’s technological expertise to support the Ministry of Tourism’s efforts in promoting South Africa as a prime tourist destination.

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The department said no monetary exchange will take place as a result of the agreement.

The areas of collaboration include:

• Collaborating with the Ministry of Tourism, Google can provide insights into global travel trends. This information can guide the Department of Tourism and South African Tourism’s strategies for targeting specific markets and tailoring experiences to visitor expectations.
• Specific studies to investigate the impact of digital platforms and online content are to be undertaken by Google and shared at no cost to the Ministry or Department.
• Google offers skills training programmes including the Google Hustle Academy and master classes. These digital skills initiatives will be extended to offer training programs for individuals and businesses within the Ministry ecosystem.
• This would equip local entrepreneurs with the digital skills needed to market their offerings online, potentially attracting a wider audience of travellers.
• Tourism start-ups can be supported by Google programmes such as the Startup Accelerator and the Black Founders Fund.

The training will also include Google Ads training on the fundamentals of Google Ads. To date, more than 2 773 South African SMMES have previously benefited from these support programmes offered by Google.

Google can showcase South African tourism sites and unique cultural heritage to the world through the Google Arts and Culture Portal.

The two will also collaborate in creating a tourism thought leadership seminar through presenting commissioned research results on the opportunity and impact of online content and digital platforms in the tourism sector.

A co-hosted thought leadership seminar will focus on the digital opportunities for accelerating economic growth in the tourism sector.

The aims of the seminar will be to facilitate knowledge sharing and understanding of the digital opportunity in accelerating economic growth and upskilling governments and tourism promotion agencies with global best practices on how to use digital platforms.

“By tapping into Google’s technology through digital skills training and the sharing of insights, South Africa’s industry, notably SMMEs, can be present their offerings in innovative ways, engaging potential tourists, and inspiring them to explore the country,” Minister de Lille said.