Tourism Minister Derek Hanekom on Thursday launched Jurni, a public–private sector venture that is expected to benefit the country’s tourism industry.

Travel and Tourism Data Management company Jurni will deliver unbiased, consolidated and comprehensive tourism data to equip tourism businesses with insights to inform their business strategies.

Jurni will also develop a booking tool that will improve small and medium-sized tourism enterprises’ access to the global market, as well as a visitor portal that will better showcase the South African tourism product.

“Tourism data and information sources in South Africa are disparate and do not provide intelligence at a granular level to inform South Africa’s travel and tourism sector,” noted Jurni CEO Dr Nomvuselelo Songelwa in a statement on Thursday.

“With the launch of Jurni, existing data sources will be consolidated, as well as digital platforms developed to harness missing data and to plug data gaps identified by the tourism sector.

“These data sources will be merged into one comprehensive, consolidated and unbiased tourism data hub for the benefit of the entire tourism sector.”

Hanekom highlighted the importance of tourism data and intelligence in giving the industry insights into every aspect of how South Africa’s tourism sector is performing.

“Through meaningful data, we can monitor changes, make forecasts, devise strategies and policies, determine whether these have been successful, and if we are indeed achieving the goals we set out as a sector,” he said.

Jurni is the official rebranding of the National Tourism Visitor Information System (NTVIS) initiative, which was launched by Amadeus IT in conjunction with the South African Department of Tourism and the Thebe Tourism Group last year. 

The investment by Amadeus was intended to respond to the real needs of South Africa’s travel and tourism industry.

As such, the participation of private and public sector in the initiative was key, explained Amadeus MD Andy Hedley.

Songelwa further explains that Jurni is not only an online booking tool or a mobile app.

“We are a ground-breaking data management company, driven to provide intelligence by connecting people and spaces in the travel and tourism sector.

“The digital platforms we are developing with industry input are merely the mechanisms through which to generate missing data that the industry needs to make better decisions, reach the visitor more effectively and connect [small businesses] to the global market.”