A very successful inaugural Southern Africa Youth in Tourism Conference with the theme ‘Promoting sustainable tourism development through the involvement and participation of the youth’ was held in Mauritius from 23 to 24 April 2015. During the conference, which was hosted by the Regional Tourism Organisation for Southern Africa (RETOSA), Prof Ernie Heath from the Department of Business Management presented a paper entitled ‘Are our tourism institutions of learning capacitating the youth to be leaders of tomorrow?’. This culminated in a very constructive discussion on key future priorities to educate and capacitate the future tourism leaders in Southern African to enhance the region’s sustainability and global competitiveness.  

A key outcome of the conference, which has the full support of the RETOSA membership base from fifteen Southern African countries, was the establishment of a Southern African Youth Tourism Initiative, which will be championed by a Southern Africa Youth Tourism Steering Committee (all under the age of 30).  Prof Heath, who was approached to be a special advisor to the Steering Committee, says: “I was truly encouraged by the passion, entrepreneurial spirit and future-orientated thinking of the youth represented at the conference. It is going to be an exciting privilege to work with this dynamic Steering Committee to advance youth tourism awareness and education in Southern Africa.”

One of the first priorities will be to develop a youth tourism action plan during the annual Southern Africa Tourism Indaba in May 2015, with a view to implementing key initiatives in the region that can build up to and form a key part of the Southern Africa World Tourism  Day celebrations in September 2015 around the theme ‘One billion tourists, one billion opportunities’.