Friday, September 22, 2017 – South African Tourism CEO, Mr Sisa Ntshona, today announced that Ms Bashni Muthaya has been appointed as Chief Strategy Officer (CSO) of South African Tourism effective 1st October 2017.
“As an insight and research-driven organisation, the appointment of a Chief Strategy Officer is definitely a significant step in the right direction towards achieving our strategic goals. We are so pleased to welcome Bashni to this all-important new role. Tourism is a significant contributor to the South African economy and a key stimulant for job creation. Given this importance, and our organisational 5 in 5 strategic goals of adding four million more international tourist arrivals and one million more domestic holiday trips within the next five years, Bashni’s extensive knowledge and expertise in statistical analysis, market research and strategic thinking will be of significant value in contributing towards achieving this goal,” said Ntshona.
Bashni will now join the executive committee (EXCO) team in this new role following South African Tourism’s Organisation Design process. As Chief Strategy Officer, Bashni will play a pivotal role in strategy formulation including championing the development of South African Tourism Growth and Investment Strategy in line with the National Tourism Sector Strategy as well as monitoring the implementation of strategy across the business. Reporting directly to the CEO, part of her responsibilities will also include a strategic advisory role to the executive team as well as managing data intelligence architecture for South African Tourism.
Having been at South African Tourism leading the Strategic Research Unit for over 14 years and as well as being Regional Director for Europe, one of South African Tourism key source market/regions, Bashni has the right balance of marketing management and strategic implementation experience.
Due to her strong leadership skills and management abilities, coupled with a firm commitment to South African Tourism, in 2016, Bashni was seconded by the organisation to France to set up the South Europe hub. There she looked after the France, Spain and Italy markets and established an operating model that would see more tourists from this region come to South Africa.
According to the latest statistics, tourist arrivals to South Africa from these countries grew noticeably between January and June this year. Tourist coming to South Africa from France grew by 34, %, while those from Spain grew by 20.2% and Italy grew by 0.7% when compared to the same period last year.
“At South African Tourism, we are passionate about people development and growth and so it is very pleasing to me that we were able to recruit an internal candidate for this role. Bashni’s strong business acumen, extensive experience and her effortless ability to manage multi-faceted stakeholder infused with her results-driven focus make her the ideal relevant and suitable for this key role as Chief Strategy Officer of SA Tourism. We look forward to her contribution as we put all our efforts together in growing South African’s tourism sector and contributing to South Africa’s inclusive economic growth” concludes Ntshona.
