The most recent winner of the Lilizela Eteya award, Bestina Selogadi Rakgoale of Besty Travel, took a gamble in 2009 when she resigned from her job at Avis, cashed in her provident fund and started her own tourism venture: Besty Travel.
Rakgoale says it took her three years to turn Besty Travel into a profitable venture, a feat that was not achieved without many hours of hard work. She says access to finance has been one of the key challenges to growing her business and it remains a challenge.
Passion is essential for any entrepreneur who wants to succeed in this industry, says Rakgoale. Without passion, people are unlikely to put in the requisite long hours and hard work, she says. “You need to be passionate, know what you’re doing and don’t give up.”
Seven years later, Besty’s Travel has been recognised as the tourism entrepreneur of the year, winning this year’s Eteya award. While winning the award has meant a lot to Rakgoale in terms of gaining exposure, she says her journey has really just begun.
Rakgoale has 11 years’ experience in the industry and has established Besty Travel as an independent travel management company offering a suite of services that include putting together itineraries and travel packages and also booking air travel. The company has expertise in the meetings, incentive, conferencing and events space.
The bulk of Besty’s clientele are local corporates and government, but the company is looking to enter the international leisure inbound market.
It is launching a new website and will soon open a second office, which will be in Pretoria. At present, the company has a footprint in Polokwane. Rakgoale has also just recently been accredited as an SA Specialist through SA Tourism.
She is passionate about empowering women and also works with a school for the blind. Besty Travel is busy putting together an internship opportunity for a blind scholar, which she hopes will lead to future growth opportunities in the company.
This article is part of a series where Tourism Update highlights small, medium and micro-sized enterprises in the tourism sector. This series is brought to you courtesy of South African Tourism.
