Steven Balderston has joined South African Tourism as trade training specialist, bringing a wealth of knowledge and experience to the role from years of working in the travel industry.
Originally from Australia, Balderston previously worked for Tourism Northern Territory in the UK for the last two and a half years.
He has experience in training travel agents, running roadshows and trade marketing campaigns.
He also has previous experience as a tour guide in the Outback.
Balderston will be developing a training strategy, utilising South African Tourism’s research and insights and ensuring the agents are provided with all the tools and support to sell South Africa.
He will build on the use of South African Tourism’s trade Facebook platform, manage an agent programme at Indaba, Africa’s largest travel show, host familiarisation trips in South Africa and implement incentives.
Balderston said: “I’m really excited to be part of the South African Tourism team in the UK and am looking forward to applying and building on my experience to date in this new role.
“I’ve already had the chance to meet agents from across the UK and Ireland as part of the annual South African Tourism School roadshow this month and was thrilled to see how much passion and enthusiasm is already out there among travel trade professionals for South Africa.”