Tomsa levy collects over R30m for international marketing

TOURISM Marketing South Africa (Tomsa) chairman, Glenn van Heerden, has announced that South African Tourism is to benefit from in excess of R30m from levy collecting tourism establishments countrywide. Speaking at a cocktail party hosted by the Tourism Business Council of South Africa (TBCSA) in honour of newly-appointed, SA Tourism ceo, Cheryl Carolus, at the Sandton Convention Centre last week, he said that the rapid growth of the Tomsa fund was due to the commitment of the industry to assist SA Tourism with the function of international marketing. In her address, Carolus outlined her vision for the future and identified five key issues to the success of tourism in South Africa. These are increasing the volume of tourists, increasing their spend and length of stay. In addition, the traditional problems of seasonality and geographic spread would need to be addressed. Van Heerden stated that it was anticipated that Tomsa would be able to transfer nearly R41m in the forthcoming year and in excess of R50m in 2003. (Adéle Mackenzie)