ETEYA Comes At The Right Time For Nkele

When Nkele Motsoaledi, the owner of South African Reatswelela Travel Centre was on the brink of closing shop and calling-it quits, little did she know  that she would one day be named the finalist for ETEYA ( Emerging Tourism Entrepreneur of The Year Award), representing Limpopo Province at this prestigious competition.  When she received a call from South African Tourism and Limpopo Tourism Agency informing her that she was a Provincial finalist for 2011/12, whereby she was requested to make a trip to the Eastern Free State town of Clarens, which is one of the hidden jewels of South Africa on the edge of Golden Gate National Park. It was here that she emerged as the Provincial winner for Limpopo.

South African Reatswelela Travel Centre was established in 2007 as a response to a call and demand to have a professional travel service agency in the Province and Polokwane in particular. The strategic location of the enterprise at the Polokwane International Airport, which is one of the 10 airports with an international license, also attributed to their success.  Motsoaledi ran the business solely for a year before appointing additional 4 members of her staff the following year.  Five years later, she has a staff compliment of 10 employees, with three of them being students.  The company was built on passion, perseverance, hard work and professionalism and that also required that she does a lot of on-the-job staff training but also referred other staff members to other institutions for specialized training, hence emphasis on professionalism.

“Business was not smooth-sailing all the way as I met and overcame a number of challenges but that comes with a business of this caliber and magnitude. As we speak, I was on the verge of closing down the business after a family decision was taken, when I heard good news of my enterprise being named ETEYA finalists, the decision is being reviewed. These challenges are mainly attributed to non-payment and late payments by various clients”, said Motsoaledi.

She also had to do a lot of brand management and aggressive marketing to ensure that her business has a market share but also to win the confidence of stakeholders as she is independent and not affiliated or aligned to any of the well-known chain of travel agencies.

Motsoaledi emphasized, “ETEYA has given me the courage and strength to continue rendering professional service to the industry. I am confident that I will represent the province accordingly. My enterprise is affiliated to IATA (International Air Transport Association) and ASATA (Association of South African Travel Agents)”.

ETEYA is a highly contested national competition that seeks to reward emerging previously disadvantaged (as constituted by the constitution of South Africa) tourism entrepreneurs with businesses that have been in operation for less than 5 years and have an annual turnover of less than R 5 million. The competition is a South African Tourism initiative in partnership with all 9 provincial tourism agencies. All the 9 provincial winners will battle it out for the prestigious title at the Tourism Indaba next year in May.  It is also worth mentioning that Limpopo has scooped this award more times than any other province.

LTA Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Rob Tooley, congratulated  South African Reatswelela Travel Centre for its achievement and said, “We are confident Ms. Motsoaledi and her company will continue to do Limpopo proud because Limpopo is known for its winning prowess as we have to date won the award more than any other province since the inception 11 years ago. We will continue providing is South African Reatswelela Travel Centre with the necessary support until the final announcements in May next year.”