SATIB Insurance Brokers - Oct 2019

S AT I B I N S U R A N C E B R O K E R S

SATIB INSURANCE BROKERS

African Tourism’s

Primary Risk Partner PRODUCTION: David Napier

SATIB Insurance Brokers is the industry leading organisation handling all aspects of insurance for the tourism, leisure and hospitality sectors across Africa. Whether it’s hotels, B&Bs, safari organisers, bungee jump businesses, tour operators or game drivers, SATIB is experienced in all aspects, and is looking forward to a bright future where African tourism represents one of the world’s fastest growing markets.

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INDUSTRY FOCUS: FINANCE

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September was tourism month for South Africa. Designed to provide a month-long, heightened focus on the significance of the tourism industry in South Africa, the Department of Tourism put on several events to highlight the amazing tourism spectacle that South Africa boasts. In line with the United Nations World Tourism Organisation’s (UNWTO) World Tourism Day – which takes place on September 27th – 2019’s celebrations in SA centred around KZN. The home of two world heritage sites, like the rest of the country, KZN has so much to offer international and domestic tourists, and many businesses have grown out of the demand on the economy from travellers.

Over the past decade, South African tourism has become a superior contributor to the country’s economic performance. This growth node has been one of the shining lights in what has been an otherwise unpredictable economy.

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In July, Stats SA released new figures on the tourism industry confirming its importance. According to the official statistics company, one in every 22 South Africans is employed in some way by the tourism sector. In Cape Town alone, some 300,000 jobs are dependent on the industry. In 2018, just under 16 million people visited South Africa from foreign countries. This is a fantastic gradual improvement, coming up from less than seven million in 2004.

Almost 95% of visitors cited vacation as their primary driver for visiting South Africa, and the government is keen to continue building a reputation on these strong figures. Overall, tourism is responsible for 1.5 million jobs in South Africa and a R425.8 billion contribution to the economy. According to the World Travel and Tourism Council, this makes South Africa the largest tourism economy on the continent.

But, while the success of the sector is clear to see, Tourism Minister

// SATIB’S FOCUS IS STILL THE ENTIRE TOURISM SECTOR // Mmamoloko Kubayi-Ngubane is keen for progress to maintain. On Tourism Day, she spoke to SABC and detailed some concerns regarding the future of the industry.

“For July, our numbers dropped.

Globally, tourism is growing. Everybody is seeing more people moving, but we are not capturing that as Africa as a whole. If you look at Asia-Pacific and Europe, they are sitting at more than 300 million visitors annually. In Africa, we are sitting at 67 million as a continent. South Africa attracts 10.4 million and that is not good. We have so many attractions, we have beautiful people who love to host people, we have different packages - the Big 5, nature reserves, coastal, townships –

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so we are now analysing the reasons that people sometimes choose not to come. We fight for the visitors that come here as we are competing with everybody across the world. If visitors don’t come, we lose jobs and we lose economic growth. Tourism is a sector that has been growing very strongly, contributing 2.9% to GDP but we could be contributing much more. The entry requirements to start businesses in tourism are relatively low – anyone can get involved whether it’s women, young people, black, no education. We

// OUR PULSE IS OUR CLIENTS AND THAT IS WHERE WE CAN ACTIVELY GAUGE HOW THE ECONOMY IS REALLY PLAYING OUT //

as South Africans must consider the impact of our behaviour on the image of our country. Our appeal is please think about the impact of your actions.”

If tourism is to continue showing little or no growth, and international tourists begin to shift their attention to other developing regions of the world, the economic impact on South Africa, and Africa, could be catastrophic.

One company that will be hoping for a shift in trends and further growth in the sector is SATIB Insurance Brokers.

This is a company that perfectly characterises the wide scope of activity that is encapsulated by the tourism industry. SATIB is a specialist risk solutions business, delivering products and services for corporate and private enterprises operating exclusively across the African tourism sector.

For SATIB, the past two years have been extremely exciting and busy.

Operating across both tourism and financial services – two of the most important

industries in Africa – this is a business with real reach and tangible impact.

Founded in 1990, SATIB began life as an insurance business that focussed on the protection of valuable wild game around Africa. It was a family business founded by Brian Courtenay but the range of services quickly grew and demands from the market saw SATIB invest into new product lines, new geographic markets, and new strategies.

Today, SATIB is a true industry leader, boasting a presence across nine African countries, and operations in even more.

“SATIB’S focus is still the entire tourism sector,” says Managing Director, Dewald Cillié. “Wherever possible, we would like to be in every single country in Africa,” he adds.

Cillié, an industry veteran who took the top job at SATIB in January 2018, told Enterprise Africa last year that the company was searching for growth through acquisition and merger activity.

So far, this strategy has paid off and the

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company’s growth has been unhindered by any negativity in the tourism space.

“I am focussing on exponential growth for the business and getting back to personal client service, and that is what I want the business to target,” he said. “Our pulse is our clients and that is where we can actively gauge how the economy is really playing out.

The feedback so far has been great, but the stronger the Rand gets, the lower figures we see with international travel.”

In 2018, SATIB opened a new office in Mauritius in order to expand its reach into the Indian Ocean Islands. The company in Mauritius is named African Risk Transfer (ART) and is headed up

by Gavin Courtenay. The business is a reinsurance brokerage– very similar to SATIB’s South African operation.

In SA, the company expanded its reach into the smaller-scale bed and breakfast market by acquiring a stake in

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Olive Insurance Brokers. “Olive Insurance Brokers is a fantastic and well-known business within its market. It was a strategic decision to either set up our own, or partner with someone who already has a fantastic reputation in that

industry,” said Cillié.

This specialist business exposes SATIB further to tourism in South Africa’s rural communities. These areas present large opportunities as many tourists come to the country looking for a more

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// THE DRIVE BEHIND THIS WAS TO GET A BIGGER FOOTPRINT, AND ACCESS TO HOUSEHOLD, CAR AND SMALL BUSINESS RISK PRODUCTS THAT OUR EXISTING CLIENTS MIGHT NOT HAVE // authentic African offering – away from the major metros and cityscapes.

A few years earlier, SATIB announced a merger with firstEquity Group – a South African insurance broking business established to fill a gap in the market for a professional independent broker with a local feel. The merger saw SATIB able to bring new services to its existing clients. While remaining focussed on its traditional tourism offerings, SATIB gained a much deeper product portfolio and a new ability to service its existing clients more thoroughly.

“This includes a merger with a strategically placed PSG office here in Johannesburg – the Randburg branch. The drive behind this was to get a bigger footprint, and access to household, car and small business risk

products that our existing clients might not have. We are also busy setting up a PSG wealth business to take care of our client’s life, health and retirement interests. It’s given us a bigger footprint inside South Africa and allows SATIB’s historic and unique products to be launched to a bigger distribution base,” said Cillié.

Since initiating this strategy of inclusive growth and expansion, SATIB has thrived – but all of the positivity, the whole way down the value chain, comes from the success of tourism, leisure and hospitality as a whole.

According to Minister KubayiNgubane, the unsavoury images that are projected around the world need to be stemmed. Unruly protests, violence, crime stats, blackouts, water shortages,

unemployment – of course, the general public and the government must work together to reduce and eliminate these issues. For SATIB, as long as tourism businesses continue to thrive, there will always be a need for protection against risk. And this means there will always be a need for specialists who understand each sector of the industry in-depth.

With economic predictions suggesting that the country could be entering a more positive period – 3.1% GDP growth in the second quarter, and the promise of further FDI from the President – perhaps the tourism sector can look forward with positivity.

“Overall, things are positive and people are now looking to the future,” says Cillié, signalling that SATIB is encouraged about the path forward.

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