Youth Tourism Association joins forces with SATSA

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Youth Tourism Association
1 min read

The Southern African Tourism Services Association (SATSA) and South African Youth Travel Confederation (SAYTC) have announced they will be merging from 2019.

This followed a decision taken by SAYTC members at their recent AGM in the Cederberg, which saw members vote overwhelmingly to join SATSA and create the organisation’s first youth chapter.

Says SATSA CEO David Frost: “We are very excited by the merger between SATSA and SAYTC, which augurs well for both organisations. The addition of several hundred members from SAYTC will bring SATSA’s membership to over 1000 members, adding gravitas to and more responsibility for SATSA.”

SATSA represents a broad footprint of the inbound tourism sector, including tour operators, car rental companies, hotels, guesthouses, tourism activities and destination marketing organisations – from large, established companies to grassroots-level entrepreneurs. The addition of SAYTC members expands this footprint, incorporating even more diverse tourism product. SAYTC members will meanwhile benefit from SATSA’s lobbying efforts, membership benefits and market initiatives, adds Frost.

“We welcome the merger with SATSA, while retaining our unique identity as its youth chapter,” says Gavin Eyre, Chairman SAYTC. “Joining forces with SATSA was the logical way forward as we seek to expand our influence in the tourism sector and work jointly to boost inbound tourism to South Africa.”