Our Success Stories

I always looked forward to my work, it’s therapy on its own, listening to those beautiful adventures made in my homeland. I enjoyed being in this position a lot as it gave me a platform to be myself. I am naturally a bubbly person, and here I was required to interact with clients at a personal level, get constructive feedback from clients, and get paid for that, how amazing!

Just as I was looking forward to my first anniversary with SOA Botswana, I received amazing news that I was being promoted to Junior Sales Consultant as they were impressed with how I handled myself in my previous position and believed I could offer more to the company. Needless to say I was momentarily speechless, then I remembered, that they have once told me that they can spot talent and nurture it.  Oh, and they do. Tourvest Destinatin Management is simply the employer of CHOICE!  As I look forward to my new chapter as a consultant, let’s see how far I can run with the baton!

Upon Margarett’s return to work, thinking my time was up to go back home and continue with job hunting, Annelize saved the day. She sat me down and gave me a ray of sunshine – a permanent position had opened up and she was offering it to me.

I continued working and got my uniform, which made me feel officially as part of the team. Everyone made me feel welcome and at home, I felt like I belonged because I was now part of the TDM family and Tribe. Throughout my tenure as an office assistant, I felt a great desire and need to spread my wings and every chance I got, I shared this with Annelize, my then-manager and each time I cleaned the CMO, Felicity’s, office, these two ladies listened and they never doubted me despite that I had just started with the company and had no previous experience.

When the receptionist position became available late 2019, I knew with everything in me that I wanted to give it a try. However I had doubts if I could do it. I approached Annelize with my fears and thoughts. She reassured and encouraged me to give try and apply, which I did but didn’t make the cut as I didn’t have the experience they needed. Despite of it all, my flame never died down, and I continued working with determination and renewed hope that I would be given an opportunity to an interview – I never gave up.

A couple of months down the line, one of the ladies in reception moved to another position, this became my second chance – talking about lightening striking the same place twice and like that, I was promoted to a receptionist. This is where I expanded on the bits of knowledge I had acquired about the company I was working for, I learnt a lot and loved my job working alongside the other receptionist, Thalita, who showed and taught me everything about being a receptionist.

I am now working as a Contracting Support Hub Coordinator and I appreciate the journey this has been, as I am now part of an amazing team, the contracting team, where we centrally contract our suppliers. I am forever grateful for this opportunity.

My first role was running the financial operations for the 2018 Football World Cup project in Russia, which presented a unique and exciting challenge. I had only limited exposure to the Global Sports side of the business while I was involved in the TDM audit, so this was an amazing opportunity to get involved in the operational aspect of such a massive event. For the first few months I travelled back and forth from Russia regularly, but from May 2018 I relocated to Russia so that I could be on the ground during the immediate lead up to the event. Living in Russia and being able to experience the Football World Cup from the perspective of the local Russian people was an unforgettable experience and one I will always be incredibly thankful for.

After completing the Football World Cup project, my role shifted to working more closely on the financial reporting for the whole of TDM, with a special focus on the operations outside of South Africa. In addition to my day-to-day financial reporting responsibilities, I was also able to work on several special projects as they arose which meant that there was always something new and exciting. In 2021, I took over as the Chief Financial Officer where my focus has been on rebuilding the business in the aftermath of COVID-19. While this was an extremely challenging and turbulent time for the tourism industry, it was an incredibly rewarding experience to see the results start materialising from some of the hard work that was done behind the scenes as our industry recovers and we begin returning to a normalised trading environment.