Travel Designer, Tourist Guide and Owner of Halaal Hopper, Mrs. Fayrouz Holliday-October took a leap of re-evaluating her experience and position within the Tourism Industry in South Africa. With the 23 years experience in the local and international tourism sector and as a Muslim woman and a Muslim woman traveller she realised that there was a great need to cater to the needs Muslim Traveller with halaal offerings. From food, accommodation and Muslim Tourist attractions the passion grew to join the already main stream of other Muslim operators to give further quality service and options to the Muslim Traveller.

Fayrouz comes with, a wealth knowledge of the Middle East, being a Dubai Tourism Top Graduate from the Government of Dubai Tourism & Commerce Marketing (DTCM) in 2001. No local formal qualification but still continue to study through the University of Life. She is the Executive member of Women in Tourism Western Cape and Interim Chairlady of Halaal Tourism Association of South Africa. She runs community projects with other women focusing on entrepreneurship for kids. Fayrouz is also a mentee of Table Mountain Aerial Cableway- making Table Mountain accessible for disadvantaged local communities.

My Mat Matters is a prayer mat project which was born in 2020, to alleviate unemployment of local community ladies since there was no longer tourist coming to South Africa during 2020 because of COVID19 and many other ongoing projects in up skilling, training and development of women and youth.

The list is quite long, but a cat out of the bag.. Fayrouz was the first girl to play cricket for Western Province in a boys team in 1979 and is also a cricket coach Other than that Fayrouz love people, places, spaces and food and believes not to do different things but to do it differently with collaboration and that whatever is meant for you will come your way. GOD WILLING (IN SHA ALLAH)

• BSc.Eng (Civil) with Honours (UCT); Master of Engineering Management (UCT), Diploma in
• Practitioner Coaching
• Professional Associations
• ECSA (PrEng), MSAICE, COMENSA

• Organisational development and training/coaching of businesses, leaders and teams.
• Utility/ engineering management and water management.

• 2005 – to date. Consultant and Coach
• 2007 – 2020 Founding Director Dinaledi Educational Coaching
• 2002 until 2005 Director Water Services – City of Cape Town
• 1997 Executive Director Engineering Services (South Peninsula Municipality)
• 1996 Chief Engineer – R & D – City of Cape Town
• 1987 Principal Engineer – Water Design & Planning – Cape Town

Ms Xasa was appointed as Minister of Sport and Recreation on 27 February 2018 until 25 May 2019. Ms Xasa was the Minister of Tourism of the Republic of South Africa from 31 March 2017 until 26 February 2018. She has been a Member of Parliament since May 2009.

Ms Xasa holds a Masters degree in Public Administration from the University of Fort Hare; a BA degree from the University of Transkei and a BA Honours degree from the University of Fort Hare.

Ms Xasa is a qualified teacher and has taught at several high schools in South Africa.

In 1997, she became the first female mayor of a district municipality, namely the Kei District Council, in the transitional period of local government in the Eastern Cape, a position she held until 2000.

During her political career, Ms Xasa served as provincial treasurer of the African National Congress in the Eastern Cape, and as a member of the Provincial Legislature in the Eastern Cape from 2001 until 2009.

She has also been a Member of the Executive Council (MEC) for Social Development; MEC for Housing, Local Government and Traditional Affairs; and MEC for Local Government and Traditional Affairs in the Eastern Cape.

Ms Xasa has served in several portfolio committees, including Local Government and Traditional Affairs, the Premier’s Office, and Economic Affairs.

Ms Xasa served as the Deputy Minister of Tourism of the Republic of South Africa; a position she held from 11 May 2009 and was reappointed on 26 May 2014 until 30 March 2017.

Over the past 23 years Ruben has developed and executed strategies for fast growing FinTech companies. He started out in the industrial process automation industry, migrated into IT and technology development.

After starting and selling a manufacturing integration company, he moved into FinTech business consulting and crypto. Applying process methodologies, agile development and crypto intelligence, Ruben now spearheads the development and marketing strategies at FutureFin.

FutureFin is a crypto & virtual asset management platform for individuals and businesses to leverage traditional assets with crypto for maximum growth.

Givemore Chidzidzi is a Zimbabwean business executive. He is the Zimbabwe Tourism Authority (ZTA) Chief Operating Officer and acting Chief Executive Officer.

Givemore is a holder of a Bachelor of Business Studies (BBS) Degree majoring in Tourism and Transportation from the University of Applied Sciences, Worms, Germany and a Master’s Degree in Business Administration (MBA) in Marketing from the City University, Bellevue, Washington, USA.

He joined the tourism industry straight form university in 1986, starting his career as an Assistant Research and Planning Officer for the then Zimbabwe Tourist Development Corporation. He rose through the ranks of Research and Planning Officer, Research and Planning Manager, Head of the Research and Planning Division and served in the Diplomatic Field as the Tourism Attaché for Zimbabwe responsible for Continental Europe and based in Frankfurt, Germany from 1996 – 2001.

Chidzidzi returned to Zimbabwe as Marketing and Communication Director for the Zimbabwe Tourism Authority and rose to the position of Chief Operating Officer of the Zimbabwe Tourism Authority, a position held since 2010 interspaced with several stints as Acting Chief Executive. In this position, he has been involved in the development of tourism legislation and policy, marketing strategy, destination branding and institutional capacity building, representing Zimbabwe on the Regional Tourism Organisation of Southern Africa (RETOSA), regional initiatives such as the Kavango Zambezi (KAZA) Transfrontier Conservation Area, African Union Tourism initiatives as well as the United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO).

He also serves on several Boards in Zimbabwe.Among these are the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Corporation (SMEDCO), Council Member of the Manicaland State University of Applied Sciences (2017 – 2019) and Zimbabwe Tourism Authority representative on the Tourism Business Council of Zimbabwe Board.

On 8 July 2021, Givemore Chidzidzi was part of a six-member interim board appointed by Transport and Infrastructure Development Minister Felix Mhonato stir the affairs of Air Zimbabwe and restore it to efficiency.

Lilly Ajarova is a tourism expert and passionate conservationist currently serving as the Chief Executive Officer of the Uganda Tourism Board (UTB). Popularly referred to as “Mama Chimp,” Ajarova has been recognized for contributing to the Uganda’s economic development through tourism marketing and wildlife conservation and management.

She is a recipient of the prestigious National Golden Jubilee Award, Tourism Excellence Award, Wildlife Conservation Award, Top Africa100 Women in Travel, Africa’s most influential women in business andgovernment among other accolades.

Ajarova has also provided leadership as a member on the advisory committee of Pan African Sanctuary Alliance (PASA) who developed policies, standard operating procedures and best practices for the 22 sanctuaries and wildlife centers in 13 African member countries of PASA. She is a proud Rotarian, mother, mentor, and educator.

Themba joined South African Tourism in September 2019 as Chief Marketing Officer. He is responsible for defining, establishing and driving the South African Tourism brand in the domestic, regional and global markets as well as driving the overall marketing effort in order to achieve the economic outcomes required of the tourism sector from the National Development Plan (NDP).

A seasoned professional with entrepreneurial flair, Themba has held senior marketing executive positions in blue chip companies like Unilever, Coca-Cola, MTN, Cell C and Telkom among others. He also has aviation and tourism experience, having held executive positions at South African Tourism (2003-2006), Airports Company South Africa and South African Airways where he was prior to joining South African Tourism.

A lawyer by training, Themba holds a Bachelor of Arts Law degree, masters certificates in marketing and organizational behaviour, as well as a certificate in Digital Marketing. Themba serves on the board of the Marketing Association of South Africa. Themba is a certified Chartered Marketer and serves as a board member of the Marketing Association of South Africa.