The Southern Africa Tourism Services Association (SATSA), in partnership with City Lodge Hotels and implementation partner Sigma International celebrated a powerful milestone in South Africa’s tourism transformation journey with a combined supplier day and informal graduation gathering on 11 February 2026. The occasion brought together corporate buyers, industry partners, and 47 graduating small and medium tourism enterprises (SMMEs) at City Lodge Hotel Waterfall City.

The event celebrated more than three years of sustained private-sector collaboration that has supported over 120 tourism-linked SMMEs across the value chain, strengthening procurement readiness, market access, operational capability, and long-term business resilience. Beyond the numbers, the initiative highlights a growing ecosystem of mentorship, partnership, and pay-it-forward leadership that is reshaping how enterprise and supplier development is delivered in the tourism sector.

A defining moment of the day was the demonstration of shared ownership by the entrepreneurs themselves: participating SMMEs collectively pledged and contributed towards hosting the gathering, a tangible expression of the programme’s “pay it forward” ethos and the maturation of a self-sustaining ecosystem.

Read the full article in Restaurants.co.za here.