Social Impact of a Sense of Place

THE SOCIAL IMPACT OF DESTINATION RETAIL

Tourism has the ability to spread economic benefit to a wide array of people in the shortest, most cost-effective and efficient manner.  A good example of this is the social impact of destination retail.  Our organization has direct impact on some 19 500 people and an indirect economic impact on a further 32 000 people.

Our chain of destination shops (77 outlets) currently employs some 700 people.  We have an estimated 650 active suppliers.  Over 80% of them are small, medium and micro enterprises.  With an average of 6 employees each, this pool of suppliers provides approximately 3900 jobs.  Each employee has an estimated 5 dependants, which means that the multiplier effect and economic benefit extends to a total of some 19 500 people.  In the ordinary course of business, we therefore benefit (in a small but meaningful way) approximately 20 000 people.  Our procurement policies are designed to deal with the constraints of small enterprise.  They often say “cash-flow is king”.  We pay many of our informal suppliers on a COD basis and purchase from a multitude of craftspeople in Southern Africa as well as East, West and North Africa.

In South Africa specifically, previously disadvantaged rural communities are often the poorest and most impoverished members of our society.  Their challenges include non-existent or inadequate infrastructure (electricity, roads and potable water), a lack of education, limited transport, inadequate business skills and little access to market.

A decade ago, we recognized the innate link between the retailing of crafts and the need to support and develop the manufacturers, often resident in rural areas.  We therefore elected to donate 6% of our after tax profits to rural development projects.  We utilize the skills, expertise and infrastructure of a non-profit organization, the Siyazisiza Trust to achieve this corporate social responsibility objective.  Our funded projects include:

Ensuring food security as a foundational objective;
Creating employment through training in craft production;
Providing the crafters with access to market;
Supplying raw materials for crafting projects at competitive prices;
Teaching a basic level of enterprise management skills.

The Siyazisiza Trust works with an average of 4000 direct beneficiaries at any one time.  Using the generally accepted rural dependency ratio of 1:8, this results in a small, but meaningful enhancement of the lives of some 32 000 people in the rural communities of South Africa.

An example of our work is typified by a project in the Sabi Sands Game Reserve on the border of the world-famous Kruger National Park.  The commercial game lodges in this area generate vast quantities of waste glass in the form of beer and wine bottles.  A recycling depot has been set-up employing 10 women from the local community.  With the help and support of the Siyazisiza Trust a glass recycling project now turns what would have been an environmental eyesore into contemporary glass jewellery that is promoted and sold through our shops.  Discarded bottles are milled to powder before being re-crafted into coloured beads which are strung into necklaces and bracelets providing income and jobs for the local community.