Trade Relations Manager: Americas at South African Tourism

Key Responsibilities
Trade and Sales Planning

• Develop and execute a 3 year strategic trade and sales plan updated annually.
• Coordinate and deliver seamless execution of the trade sales plan.
• Develop an annual calendar of activities to deliver against the plan.
• Develop and produce periodic performance reports and feedback on monthly activations and annual trade sales plans.
• Develop a performance and ROI dashboard for all trade and sales engagements.
• Identify, manage, and participate in key trade events, including but not limited to roadshows and trade shows.
• Ensure collaboration between trade sales and marketing comms plan for seamless communication and execution in market.

Stakeholder Engagement and Communication

• Identify and maintain a database of all Trade and related stakeholders.
• Develop the Trade, Sales, and Stakeholder Annual Engagement Plan
• Cultivate, develop new, and maintain existing business relationships with travel trade and related stakeholders.
• Consult with trade on annual trade sales plans in line with SA Tourism objectives and key account management principles.
• Organise and attend regular market update events with the Trade.
• Develop a comprehensive communication plan for all Trade.
• Establish and maintain relationships with key stakeholders to promote the South African brand through collaboration and partnerships with business heads, trade, broader industry and sector players.

Trade Distribution Collaborations

• Develop and maintain strategy for working with the outbound and inbound travel industry
• Identify the appropriate amount and mix of trade partnerships by target market and geographic source market in different tiered cities.
• Negotiate and close collaborative sales agreements according to goals and outputs identified for each trade partner.
• Regularly review relationships with trade partners against performance and ensure agreements are implemented according to contract deliverables.
• Ensure signed contracts are legally compliant and regularly updated.

Financial and Performance Management

• Submit periodic financial and performance reports to the Hub Head.
• Manage within legal parameters and according to company policy and procedures.
• Put action plans in place for unacceptable variances.

Strategic Trade & Partner Engagement

• Manage and scale the B2B CRM database (e.g Salesforce/HubSpot) to track, segment, and nurture relationships with US travel advisors, tour operators, and wholesalers.
• Design and execute data-driven digital co-op marketing campaigns with North American trade partners to drive bookings to South Africa.
• Lead the digital transformation of the US trade portal, ensuring updated itineraries, toolkits, and promotional collateral are easily accessible.

Digital Campaigns, Training & Virtual Events

• Oversee and optimize the online South African Specialist training program to increase enrolment and completion rates among US travel agents.
• Produce, host, and analyse educational webinars and virtual roadshows using platforms like Zoom and Microsoft Teams.
• Curate and distribute highly segmented B2B e-newsletters (eDMs) and automated email workflows tailored to different tiers of travel buyers.
• Account-Based Marketing (ABM): Ability to design targeted digital campaigns that target specific high-value US tour operators and travel agency networks. CRM & Pipeline Management: Mastery of platforms like HubSpot or Salesforce to track trade leads, segment agents by production volume, and automate follow-ups.

Collaboration & Campaign Performance

• Monitor, analyse, and report on B2B digital campaign KPIs, web traffic, and trade conversion rates using Google Analytics (GA4) and Looker Studio.
• Use collaborative project management tools (Asana/Monday.com) to coordinate joint marketing activations with airlines, consortia, and key distribution partners.
• Conduct social listening and active B2B networking to identify emerging US travel trends and new distribution channels.

Qualifications and Experience

• Bachelor’s Degree in Tourism Management, Sales and Marketing, Digital Communications or equivalent. A Master's degree is an added advantage.
• Minimum of 5 to 8 years of experience working within the US outbound travel distribution system, with an established network of US tour operators, consortia (e.g. Virtuoso, Signature), and travel advisors.
• Digital marketing capabilities
• English language proficiency and business acumen.
• Budget & financial management experience
• Experience in strategy development and implementation.
• Prior experience working for a national, regional, or city tourism board, or a major inbound receptive operator.