Staff Writer
THE Lesotho Tourism Development Corporation (LTDC) will on Tuesday host the debut Women in Tourism Conference (WiT Conference) at the ‘Manthabiseng Convention Centre, in Maseru.
The move is in line with the corporation’s drive “to highlight and enhance the relevance of tourism in economic development”. It is also meant to commemorate Women’s Month, which is celebrated annually in August.
In a statement this week, the LTDC said it had decided to embrace the call from the United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) to rethink tourism for resilience and sustainability.
“The fact that women make up the majority of the workforce in tourism (with 59 percent of employees in the accommodation sector of Lesotho being women), the LTDC found it fitting to start the journey of rethinking tourism by recognising and empowering women in tourism who have actually been the anchor for the industry,” the LTDC said.
“With about 150 women, the LTDC will tackle the tourism industry’s hottest topics and tourism business bottle necks at the much-anticipated debut WiT Conference.”
Featuring local tourism industry’s gurus and business development service providers like banks, insurances and other relevant institutions, the WiT Conference will hone in on sustainability, talent and innovation, entrepreneurship skills, business management principles, access to finance, business mentorship opportunities and more, – all under the theme “Adopt an SMME – inspire and mentor another woman”.
LTDC public relations manager, ‘Manchafalo Motšoeneng, said: “We are excited to host the most respected and experienced tourism industry’s trailblazers and champions together with the budding ones”.
“The programme for the day has been carefully crafted to address the key issues in tourism business, challenges, trends and will also map way forward towards building a resilient and sustainable tourism for Lesotho.
“With a focus on embracing the idea of rethinking tourism and adopting the relevance of partnerships and business mentorship among the role players, who are mostly women, WiT Conference has the potential to bring diverse range of opportunities for participants to engage with one another, learn and brainstorm breakthrough ideas and exciting partnerships and collaborations which will build up to the promotion of tourism, gender equality and ultimately the achievement of sustainable development goals (SGDs),” Ms Motšoeneng said.
