Dwyer, who is the keynote speaker at the Second International Conference on Entrepreneurship Development at the Central University of Technology (CUT) in Bloemfontein this week, says this shift in thinking coincides with a huge shift in management thinking. He says previously companies were primarily concerned with the profitability of a business, an ideology that is now considered to be too narrow. Tourism companies are steadily becoming socially and environmentally aware, aligning with tourists’ needs and wants. “If a destination is to be sustainable, it must be the firm’s behaviour that determines that,” says the academic.

The current visiting and Adjunct Professor at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) and Griffith University’s Institute of Tourism, respectively says companies are even taking note of the role that different cultures play in a vibrant society, and it is a vibrant society that is appealing to tourists.

Dwyer’s highly anticipated talk today is 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. “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