January 14, 2005
By Tammy O'Reilly
CHIEF executive officer Deon Viljoen is set to leave the Johannesburg Tourism Company (JTC) at the end of January after a two-year stint.
The JTC will bid farewell to Viljoen this month when his contract comes to an end and he leaves to rejoin Southern Sun Hotels.
Having joined the JTC in March 2003 while it was still in its infancy, Viljoen has had much success in fulfilling the company's main objectives, including establishing the company as the City's tourism guardian and attracting business related-tourism to the city.
"As a host of industry members will concur, Deon has done an exceptional job of strongly positioning the JTC as a public-private sector partnership - an invaluable tool in promoting tourism to Johannesburg," said Connie Molusi, chairman of the JTC.
"In the space of two years the company has exceeded expectation and considerably raised its local and international profile," he added.
During his time with JTC Viljoen set up the Johannesburg Convention Bureau, which has secured more than 20 international conventions, conferences and exhibitions to the city.
More recently, Viljoen has been instrumental in developing the concept of Destination Marketing Organisations, in which eight tourism nodes around the city were identified as having the potential to attract tourism.
He and his team have also been responsible for the production and dissemination of guides and brochures, as well as starting up an interactive website.
"I was privileged to have been given this wonderful and exciting opportunity of establishing the Johannesburg Tourism Company. The JTC team and board who enthuse passion for their city have been a phenomenal support to me over the past two years," said Viljoen in a statement.
"I have no doubt that the Johannesburg Tourism Company will grow from strength to strength and continue to add value to this tourism industry in our vibrant city."
JTC's deputy CEO, Eddy Khosa, will step in as acting CEO until a new appointment is made.
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