New face to head SA Tourism in

New face to head SA Tourism in the UK

Meet Tolene van der Merwe, the next UK country manager for South African Tourism UK

New face to head SA Tourism in

South African Tourism has a new country manager for the UK, and her name is Tolene van der Merwe.

The South African native bring over 15 years’ worth of industry experience to the table, having worked extensively on b2b campaigns in the travel sector in both the UK and in SA before. Her career highlights include a long stint with Exclusive Getaways travels, followed by her employment at Gatsby International Hotels, where she made her name as a national sales manager.

Following these two positions in SA, Tolene moved to Londono almost ten years ago, where she started as product manager for African Affair Travel, but within two years had her own business up and running, Boutique Travel Marketing.

With a passion for African travel, Tolene continued to push the envelope for tourism in Africa for years until this latest opportunity came knocking on her door. Tolene, a former nominee for the Woman in Business of the Year award at the SA Business Club, raves about the love she feels for her work:

“I get to talk about South Africa and the beauty, uniqueness and diversity of my gorgeous country and get to entice people to sell it to their clients by sharing my love and enthusiasm for it.”

South Africa Tourism chief executive officer, Thulani Nzima, says Tolene is the ideal candidate for this job because of her experience both in South Africa and the UK.

“Her strong trade background means she is well-suited to driving our arrivals figures from the UK and maintaining its strong position as the number one market for international visitors to South Africa,” Nzima commented.

“Obstacles are what you see when you take your eyes off your goal,” Tolene says as she describes her approach to business. With that in mind, it certainly looks like this Saffa could still go a long way representing SA and all her beauties.