The keynote speaker expected to address those in attendance at the conference hosted by the Central University of Technology (CUT) this week, is longtime Australian Tourism academic, Larry Dwyer. The current visiting and Adjunct Professor at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) and Griffith University’s Institute of Tourism respectively, will be giving a highly anticipated talk today, in line with the theme ‘Sustainable Entrepreneurship Development for the fourth Industrial Revolution’. Dwyer says he is excited to be in South Africa for a second time and he will be focusing on social entrepreneurship in Tourism in his address.

Dwyer says tourism firms are moving away from just being profit-driven. He says there is a focus on being a part of the solution to addressing global warming by being environmentally savvy and assisting in sustaining a country’s biodiversity. He adds consumers are also looking for tourism firms that are vested in preserving biodiversity.

He is optimistic about South Africa’s tourism industry. “The service that I have received in the hotel and the hosts at the university and so on,  have been first-class. I have been made to feel very welcome here. So if that is any indication of the level of hospitality in the tourism industry generally, then I think South Africa is in good hands,” concludes Dwyer.

OFM News