Tourism background in South AfricaThe City of Tshwane is an administrative capital of the country where the Union buildings (the offices of the South African President) are located. It has a rich history. The city hosts the largest number of embassies in the world after Washington, DC (travelstartblog 2017). There are many tourist attractions in Pretoria including the Pretoria Zoo, Freedom Park, the Voortrekker Monument, just to mention a few. The status quo of Tshwane Tourism consists of a variety of components including tourism products, marketing, infrastructure, human resource, small micro medium enterprise (SMME) and entrepreneurial development and investment development plans.
Background:The cross-cutting nature of the tourism industry is one of the defining features or characteristics of the sector. There is a high rate of interdependence in the tourism industry; hence, it is dubbed to be having a multiplier effect (direct, indirect and induced).
Objectives:The aim of the study is to investigate the supply chain (SC) drivers and barriers of the businesses operating in the tourism industry in Pretoria.Method: A self-administered questionnaire was used to identify the drivers and barriers within the tourism SC (TSC). Convenience sampling was implemented among 179 businesses operating in Pretoria.
Results:The results revealed that customer relationship management is an SC driver for tourism operation in Pretoria. The barriers incorporate issues such as being insensitive to the environment, not developing environmental-friendly SCs and logistics practices and not being able to assess the performance against criteria defined in the organisation's policy. Moreover, the study presents the mitigation plan approach to deal with the TSC barriers in the near future.
Conclusion:Innovation that strengthens inter-sectoral planning and collaboration is pivotal for effective coordination.