SOUTH AFRICAN TOURISM

TRADE RELATIONS MANAGER: AMERICAS

(only USA-based citizens may apply)

3-Year Fixed Term Contract

Are you passionate about South Africa, travel, and tourism? If yes, a vacancy exists. South African Tourism is searching for a results-driven, credible individual with strong interpersonal and influencing skills, strong business acumen, and creative flair to join our dynamic organisation and drive our trade and sales strategy and implementation as a Trade Relations Manager: Americas.

Key Responsibilities

Trade and Sales Planning

• Develop and execute a 3 year strategic trade and sales plan updated annually.

• Coordinate and deliver seamless execution of the trade sales plan.

• Develop an annual calendar of activities to deliver against the plan.

• Develop and produce periodic performance reports and feedback on monthly activations and annual trade sales plans.

• Develop a performance and ROI dashboard for all trade and sales engagements.

• Identify, manage, and participate in key trade events, including but not limited to roadshows and trade shows.

• Ensure collaboration between trade sales and marketing comms plan for seamless communication and execution in market.

Stakeholder Engagement and Communication

• Identify and maintain a database of all Trade and related stakeholders.

• Develop the Trade, Sales, and Stakeholder Annual Engagement Plan

• Cultivate, develop new, and maintain existing business relationships with travel trade and related stakeholders.

• Consult with trade on annual trade sales plans in line with SA Tourism objectives and key account management principles.

• Organise and attend regular market update events with the Trade.

• Develop a comprehensive communication plan for all Trade.

• Establish and maintain relationships with key stakeholders to promote the South African brand through collaboration and partnerships with business heads, trade, broader industry and sector players.

Trade Distribution Collaborations

• Develop and maintain strategy for working with the outbound and inbound travel industry

• Identify the appropriate amount and mix of trade partnerships by target market and geographic source market in different tiered cities.

• Negotiate and close collaborative sales agreements according to goals and outputs identified for each trade partner.

• Regularly review relationships with trade partners against performance and ensure agreements are implemented according to contract deliverables.

• Ensure signed contracts are legally compliant and regularly updated.

Financial and Performance Management

• Submit periodic financial and performance reports to the Hub Head.

• Manage within legal parameters and according to company policy and procedures.

• Put action plans in place for unacceptable variances.

Strategic Trade & Partner Engagement

• Manage and scale the B2B CRM database (e.g Salesforce/HubSpot) to track, segment, and nurture relationships with US travel advisors, tour operators, and wholesalers.

• Design and execute data-driven digital co-op marketing campaigns with North American trade partners to drive bookings to South Africa.

• Lead the digital transformation of the US trade portal, ensuring updated itineraries, toolkits, and promotional collateral are easily accessible.

Digital Campaigns, Training & Virtual Events

• Oversee and optimize the online South African Specialist training program to increase enrolment and completion rates among US travel agents.

• Produce, host, and analyse educational webinars and virtual roadshows using platforms like Zoom and Microsoft Teams.

• Curate and distribute highly segmented B2B e-newsletters (eDMs) and automated email workflows tailored to different tiers of travel buyers.

• Account-Based Marketing (ABM): Ability to design targeted digital campaigns that target specific high-value US tour operators and travel agency networks.

• CRM & Pipeline Management: Mastery of platforms like HubSpot or Salesforce to track trade leads, segment agents by production volume, and automate follow-ups.

Collaboration & Campaign Performance

• Monitor, analyse, and report on B2B digital campaign KPIs, web traffic, and trade conversion rates using Google Analytics (GA4) and Looker Studio.

• Use collaborative project management tools (Asana/Monday.com) to coordinate joint marketing activations with airlines, consortia, and key distribution partners.

• Conduct social listening and active B2B networking to identify emerging US travel trends and new distribution channels.

Qualifications and Experience

• Bachelor’s Degree in Tourism Management, Sales and Marketing, Digital Communications or equivalent. A Master's degree is an added advantage.

• Minimum of 5 to 8 years of experience working within the US outbound travel distribution system, with an established network of US tour operators, consortia (e.g. Virtuoso, Signature), and travel advisors.

• Digital marketing capabilities

• English language proficiency and business acumen.

• Budget & financial management experience

• Experience in strategy development and implementation.

• Prior experience working for a national, regional, or city tourism board, or a major inbound receptive operator.

Knowledge, Skills and Attributes

• Negotiation, project management, digital, financial management, and people management.

• Creative thinker, innovative, customer service orientation, resilience, interpersonal sensitivity, teamwork.

• Comprehensive knowledge of the US travel distribution system, including major consortia (e.g., Virtuoso, Signature), host agencies, and operators.

• Excellent presentation and public speaking skills, both in-person and in virtual formats.

• Ability to work within an existing team structure in a US environment while maintaining seamless digital alignment with a South Africa-based head office.

• Analytical, interpersonal and decision making skills

• To be effective, the successful candidate must bridge the gap between traditional B2B travel trade distribution and modern data-driven marketing.

Visit us @ www.southafrica.net/us

Detailed CV to be sent to : tourismexecution@southafrica.net

Closing date : 17 August 2026

No late applications will be accepted

USA-based citizens only as South African Tourism does not offer work permit sponsorship.

Applications from non-US-based applicants will not be considered.

Should you not have heard from us within three weeks after the closing date, kindly consider your application unsuccessful.

 HUMAN CAPITAL BUSINESS PARTNER 

(Re-advertisement)

An exciting opportunity exist for an individual who will provide consultative Human Capital services and support to line managers and employees at SA Tourism. The vacancy is based at South African Tourism’s Home Office in Sandton. This position reports to the Manager: Human Capital Business Partnering. If you possess the required skills, experience and are an energetic team player interested in joining a dynamic organisation committed to developing a better South Africa, we invite you to apply. 

Key Outputs: 

·       Support achievement of business objectives through effective HC business partnering. 

·       Provide high level, professional and strategic HC advice, support, coaching and expertise to business units. 

·       Build relationship with line management to enhance HC credibility and develop HC competence. 

·       Implement HC processes in an integrated way to attract, engage, develop and retain talent. 

·       Provide business unit and country office support for key HC and in-country related issues. 

·       Support SA Tourism employees and provide advice on the day to day transactional HC issues. 

·       Implement Talent Acquisition processes. 

·       Identify and build key talent segments and provide input to workforce plan/staffing model. 

·       Deliver expert HC leadership to ensure the development and delivery of Talent Acquisition processes that are designed to support workforce planning objectives related to the attraction and retention of high calibre staff. 

·       On-boarding and Terminations management and execution 

·       Employee Benefits, 

·       Leave Support. 

·       Manage the leave administration processes and ensure accurate records. 

·       Organisational Development and Change Management support 

·       Provide overall organisational development and change management support to all business units and country offices at SA Tourism. 

·       Consult with all the stakeholders and get buy-in for organisational development and change. 

·       Interface with business units to understand strategic and functional business needs, and monitor and measure the services provided by the HC business unit team members.

·       Provide General HC Services: Employee Wellness, Employment Relations, Talent Management, Employee Engagement, Reward and Recognition among others 

Qualifications and Experience 

·       Relevant Bachelor’s Degree/National Diploma in Human Resources/Industrial Psychology or relevant qualification. 

·       4 years in Human resources or a related field, of which 2 years should be in a management position. 

·       Working knowledge of multiple human resource disciplines, including compensation practices, organisational diagnosis, employee and union relations, diversity, performance management, and employment laws. 

Knowledge and Understanding 

·       Knowledge of SA Labour Legislation 

·       It will be important to learn and have working knowledge of international labour legislations 

·       HR frameworks, policies and procedures 

·       Standard practices, processes and procedures relating to HR Planning. 

·       Performance monitoring, evaluation and reporting frameworks, systems and processes 

Qualities

·       Attention to detail 

·       Critical thinking 

·       Innovative forward thinker 

·       Excellent interpersonal relations 

·       Customer focus 

·       Excellent negotiation skills 

·       A team player 

·       Excellent written and oral communication skills 

·       Assertiveness, Empathy 

·       Problem-solving skills 

Visit us @ www.southafrica.net

Detailed CV and cover letter to be sent to : hr@southafrica.net

Closing date : 07 August 2026 

Should you have not heard from us within two weeks after submitting your application, kindly consider your application unsuccessful. 

No late applications will be accepted.