Sanlam : Youth4Tourism Initiative Takes Off

Youth4Tourism has already seen youth being trained and employed as tour guides, event coordinators, concierges, chefs, guest managers, travel agents, and content creators. These content creators have been placed across South Africa to promote and support tourist attractions in their hometowns and surrounds, through creative outputs like photography and videography.

Paul Hanratty, CEO of Sanlam, says, "Currently, we have 4.9 million unemployed young people in South Africa. This is a crisis as our demographic dividend should be our greatest shared asset. Y4T's purpose is to help foster employability by growing our youth into micro-entrepreneurs with sought-after, future-fit skill sets. These youths will also help bolster our SMME sector's resilience and generate content that'll shine a spotlight on South Africa to turbo charge our critical tourism industry. We are proud to collaborate with YES on this initiative, and we urge our corporate peers to join us on the journey. Together, we can make real, sustained impact at scale."

Tourism is a key sector in the South African economy. According to Stats SA, in January 2023, more than 2.7 million travellers passed through South Africa's ports of entry and exit, an impressive number that is poised to grow as the sector continues to bounce back from the pandemic.

Sanlam and YES are the founding partners of the initiative and are joined by other leading corporates such as Mercedes Benz SA, Hollard, Pizza Hut, Ford, Fairtree and, most recently, Sun International and the Tourism Business Council of South Africa (TBCSA), as well as implementation partners such as Conservation South Africa, RLABS, Youth Content Collective (YCC) and Africa Foundation.