Big Tree Marketing’s Lindsey Gibaud is Sowing the Seeds for Long-Term Tourism Success

Lindsey Gibaud’s career in tourism began in 1999 at Protea Hotels, where she spent six years in the international sales team at their head office in Cape Town. From there, Log Collection Hotels approached her to market their Knysna and Port Elizabeth hotels over seven years.

In 2011, Lindsey launched Big Tree Marketing, offering travel trade support and business development in the inbound tourism space. “It took some courage, but I haven’t looked back,” she says.

The business was doing well until a health challenge required Lindsey to slow down for treatment. Just as she was ready to return to work however, Covid19 happened and two years of lockdown ensued, significantly impacting the tourism industry including Big Tree Marketing.

“I spent two months recovered from taxing chemotherapy, slept, watched many Netflix movies and read every book I could find,” she reminisces. “When the government lifted some of the lockdown restrictions and we could travel I started running localized eds and fam trips with tour operators to generate additional income and expose my business to new markets and areas.”

Lindsey wanted to build awareness around Big Tree Marketing so that once travel opened, people would already know what the company was all about. This decision not only brought her new clients but also set in motion an initiative to transform the future of the tourism industry.

“I had been talking to the tourism learners at my daughters school for over eight years.  Early in 2021, while my tourism colleagues were still sitting at home waiting for international travel to recover, I met with tourism teacher Wendy to discuss a mini expo for all tourism learners in Pinelands. 

“In 2021 we ran our expo with table top and booth exhibitions alongside panel discussions in the hall.  One of the tourism stakeholders we invited was  Cape Town Tourism, of which Big Tree Marketing is a long-standing member. They later approached us to partner with Cape Town Tourism running workshops at various schools around Cape Town,” Lindsey says.

Educating the heart – igniting a passion for tourism

Following the expo, Cape Town Tourism developed their Future Tourism Leaders programme, supported by Big Tree Marketing, to aid Grade 10 to 12 tourism learners better understand our industry dynamics beyond textbooks and assessments. “We wanted to inspire them with real-life stories directly from industry professionals, ignite a passion for further studies, and encourage these learners to one day join our tourism community,” Lindsey explains. “Aristotle once said ‘educating the mind without educating the heart is no education at all’, which sums it up well.”

The pilot programme took place in Pinelands in April 2021, with Grade 11 and 12 learners from three local high schools attending. “Cape Town Tourism invited leaders in the tourism industry to speak about their experiences and practical day-to-day engagement also encouraging the learners to ask questions,” Lindsey adds.

“It has been amazing to see how colleagues and friends have stepped up and are willing to share their time and energy with these youngsters,” she adds. “It is I believe, our responsibility to nurture the next generation of tourism professionals.”

“We’ve had so many speakers share their time it seems unfair to single anyone out, however Fuad Peters from I am Cape Town has been such an incredible help, holding the fort when I had to be out of town for business.

Big Tree Marketing is also a long-standing member of several respected industry associations, including SATSA, Cape Town Tourism, and the international travel club SKAL. These networks have been pivotal in finding professionals willing to share South Africa’s tourism story.

Breaking down the barriers to entry

Over the years, Lindsey realised that some tourism teachers had not yet been on a tour, highlighting a desperate need to give both them and their learners practical understanding of our industry.

One of the most asked questions is “How do I get into tourism?”. “Many learners don’t have the funds to continue studying and need to get paid as soon as possible when they matriculate, so we tell them about internship opportunities and how to set up their careers while still in school,” Lindsey explains.

“Many don’t yet understand exceptional customer service or how to build their personal brand, like arriving on time for an interview, not chewing gum, using bad language or shuffling in timidly. We teach them to be confident, to stand up straight and not to be shy to  ask questions”  she notes.  “We also remind them that many employers visit candidates social media pages to find out more about the real person they are about to hire”.

Some students sit quietly and don’t say much, while others are very engaging. “At one of our workshops a learner asked us what would happen if a client was kidnapped.  On that day our panel was a bit surprised by the question but carefully unpacked standard safety and security protocols and the correct procedures we follow to mitigate accidents and incidents.  We also used this opportunity to discuss insurances and liability cover”

To keep learners engaged we sometimes include a short stand-up break with one of our panel members often leading and end off with a surprise a tourism general knowledge pop quiz and prize-giving.  “Most often our generous panel sponsor prizes and regular contributor Pieter Buitendag, GM at Lagoon Beach Hotel sponsors a prize which elicits great cheers at every workshop,”  Lindsey notes. “Experience-orientated prizes both inspire and offer an opportunity to encounter real life tourism .”

Scaling solo

The collaboration between Cape Town Tourism and Big Tree Marketing has facilitated these workshops for over three years, reaching close to 3,500 tourism students in Grades 10 to 12 from Khayelitsha, Guguletu, Mitchells Plein, Hanover Park, Hout Bay, Woodstock, and other areas in the Cape Peninsula.

As a small business we use technology to support as much of our work as possible.  Lindsey has created a dedicated events page to facilitate workshop sign-ups and communication, providing hospitality and tourism stakeholders with workshop details and an interactive map for easy navigation.

Check it out here: http://bit.ly/3EDaGBK

With thousands of learners already impacted and new ideas to expand our youth work, we are developing this programme to include different areas of expertise to impact even more learners. Here’s to transforming the tourism industry’s future talent pipeline.