SMALL, medium and micro enterprises (SMMEs) in the Frances Baard District Municipality were trained on new digital skills that will boost their business productivity and business data management during a two-day Tourism SMME Training Workshop in Kimberley.
Held on September 2-3, the workshop was a collaboration between Frances Baard District Municipality, Sol Plaatje Municipality, the Galeshewe SMME Village MLab and the Northern Cape Innovation Forum.
The aim of the workshop was to create an awareness of technology and to enhance the understanding of technology amongst tourism SMMEs.
Gerline Roman, from Francis Baard Municipality, said there was a need to find new ways of doing business and promoting tourism in the tourism sector since Covid-19 struck.
“Digitisation was identified as the main answer to this challenge, given the degenerated state of the economy throughout the world as the result of the negative impact of Covid 19,” said Roman.
“Tourism is the hardest hit of the sectors due to very limited, to no travel at all, measures that were put in place, as one of the means to curb the spread of the disease.”
The tourism SMMEs were introduced to data management software to make their daily operations easier and more efficient and to generate business leads that would result in actual bookings and sales.
The tourism businesses that attended the workshop will be provided with 24/7 IT support from the Galeshewe SMME Village/MLab for the data management software.
They were further introduced to other free technical avenues where businesses that do not have websites can create their own free website and free digital marketing platforms.
The identified avenues are expected to assist in the creation of corporate identity and a business WhatsApp linked to a website, with a feature for scheduling posts.
According to Roman, an initial workshop was held on June 1 at the Frances Baard District Municipality, where follow-ups identified a need to host further sessions.
“The SMMEs required more guidance to successfully integrate technology in their respective areas.
“The workshops on September 2-3 were additional sessions rolled out in Galeshewe and again at the Frances Baard District Municipality,” said Roman.
