Lijeng Moruthane
Maseru, Lesotho – Women In Tourism Lesotho Association (WITLA) in collaboration with the Circle of Global Business Women (CGBW) and the government’s tourism implementing arm, Lesotho Tourism Development Corporation (LTDC), are jointly hosting a three-day tourism summit and expo.
Women in Tourism Southern Africa Summit and Expo serves as a business networking and mentoring platform where professionals from Africa and beyond will discuss topics related to entrepreneurship, technology, women’s and youth empowerment and value chains in the tourism industry.
With the theme Accelerated economic growth in tourism value chains and in its second year running, the expo ran from November 27 to 29, at ʹManthabiseng Convention Centre in Maseru.
WITSA is a forum that champions women in the tourism industry and value chain. It stimulates the tourism promotion agenda within the region with support from the SADC Secretariat. Its major focus is to bring together key stakeholders in the industry to forge strategic alliances and contribute to regional economic growth.
The forum hosts annual summits, exhibitions and intra-regional trade and investment tours. It resides within Women of Value Southern Africa, an organization that has partnered with the SADC Secretariat to implement economic empowerment for women and youth within the sub-region with tourism as the focus sector.
The first Women in Tourism Southern Africa Summit and Expo was held last year in September in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Also in attendance, Lesotho’s Prime Minister Sam Ntsokoane Matekane revealed that according to the National Strategic Development Plan II, the Government of Lesotho aims to promote gender equality through interventions that will contribute to improving equality, job creation and inclusive growth.
“Lesotho has made a commitment through the signing of the 2030 Agenda on sustainable
development goals. In this endeavor, underpinned is a goal on achieving the gender equality and empowerment of women in Lesotho,” he said.
The Premier continued by adding that seeing the potential of the tourism sector, the Government of Lesotho has identified tourism as one of four economic growth sectors, this therefore demonstrates that Lesotho is on the right track empower women through advancing this sector to attract more guests into the country.
Upon recognising that the tourism and hospitality sector is driven by women with a large margin of 56%, Matekane stated that “Lesotho like many countries has recognized the importance of tourism in growing the economies and I am certain that this event is one of those interventions that are going to empower these great leaders in the sector.”
Meanwhile, Standard Lesotho Bank, in collaboration with Alliance Insurance, on Tuesday launched Lesotho Tourism Festival (LETOFE) Lifestyle Experience.
The launch was meant to lighten up the festive mood in preparation for the LETOFE event to be held in Thaba-Bosiu on December 23.
LETOFE is an annual event that takes place at the Thaba-Bosiu Cultural Village, which has since been transformed from a mere jazz affair to a lifestyle event.
Speaking at the launch, Standard Lesotho Bank CEO Anton Nicolaisen said he was pleased to launch the LETOFE lifestyle experience.
“This festival is arguably one of the biggest music festivals that Lesotho holds and we are pleased to continue as the headline sponsor of this event that brings moments of jubilation and friendship,” Nicolaisen said.
He said since the arts industry should be guarded jealously, the bank will continue bringing joy to Basotho as a means to promote artistes.
“As patron of arts, we have jealously guarded the creative industry. The SLB is still here to promote the arts and bring happiness to Basotho,” he said.
He said the bank has been sponsoring the festival for the past 18 years.
“We are now 18 years on the trot and I am proud that we have been a significant contributor to the growth of this festival.”
He said this festival has grown in leaps and bounds to become one of the biggest features of their entertainment calendar during the festive season, attracting multitudes within Lesotho, Basotho in diaspora and tourists from neighbouring countries.
“We have benchmarked on the successes of these festivals and we will improve our offering every year to the level of a full lifestyle event.”
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He said the event is a way of acknowledging the talent that Basotho have as well as the avenue for cross-fertilization of local artists to experience and present their craft.
He added that the bank had made an arrangement for their customers to enjoy a six percent discount when they buy festival tickets using Standard Lesotho Bank cards at any Computicket in Lesotho or other countries.
The promoter of the LETOFE Lifestyle event said they are transforming the event from a jazz festival to a lifestyle event.
“We are introducing young stars to the concepts hence our event is composed of the upcoming stars.”
The co-sponsor from Alliance Insurance, ‘Makearabetsoe Mabaleha, said as sponsors they sponsor the LETOFE Lifestyle experience because they are also benefiting from the event.
“Our benefaction is seeing the event creating jobs for Basotho and attracting foreigners in order to improve the economy,” Mabaleha said. – APO
