GeoSavvy is a consultancy focused on sustainable tourism development. Current services offered are tourism consulting, tourism training and related industry development consulting.
In order to fully deliver on project GeoSavvy Development utilizes the following expertise:
- Developing competitiveness and innovation in the tourism industry up and down the supply chain through delivering high value advisory services and training courses.
- Building enterprise and management capacity for tourism MSMEs in all areas of the tourism supply chain such as hotels; travel and tour operators; destination management organizations; sites and attractions; maximizing understanding of all the industries that support them: construction and infrastructure; transportation; retail business; finance and financial management; and business service providers
Creating innovative strategies for market linkages, market access and introducing branding strategies for tourism MSMEs - Identifying issues and barriers for MSMEs access to finance and generating innovative incentives and financial instruments to address them
- Defining and delineating the competitive potential and existing niche markets for destinations and product providers within a global tourism context
The following list is the services that we offer:
Market Access for Tourism Enterprises - Tourism SMEs are now realizing the importantce of the Internet on their business, however they do not really understand the distribution options available to them and how they work. Problems for tourism SMEs include:
- Limited understanding of e-commerce options
- Informal pricing structures for on or offline distribution
- Basic or missing advance booking knowledge or practice
- Lack of understanding how to balance the distribution options
- Inadequate digital photo and written content
Project Design and Strategy Development - Our focus is to develop solutions to assist a destination to grow holistically and to embrace their authenticity through assisting SME tourism providers to flourish. These interventions can be a part of development projects that require donor support, or they may be specific to small counties in need of economic development.
Training and Facilitation - We have a long history of SME training and have experts on staff who have developed a number of professional education courses. Our approach to training for business owners is that the courses must be concise, provide practical applications and deliver results. To date we have had over a 90% satisfaction rating with our courses.
ICT Solutions - We have received contracts from a variety of clients to assist with pure technology and database projects. One such project was the Tourism Sector Diagnostic Tool database, field application and reporting module application that we built for the IFC/FIAS.
SME Access to Finance - There are two big challenges that face most SME accommodation and tour providers in the developing world. They are access to markets and access to finance. We provide support for access to finance by creating a bridge between the lender and the borrower, thereby closing the information gap for both parties and allowing them to reach a mutually beneficial lending agreement.
