From the dusty street of Msinga to making big moves at the City of uMhlathuze. Sne Mkhize (33) is demonstrating to the youth in business, Tourism in particular that anything is possible if you work hard.

With the high number of unemployed youth in South Africa, Sne used her tourism qualifications obtained from uMfolozi Tvet College to create employment for herself. In 2016 she started conceptualizing ways of creating activities for tourists when they visit Richards Bays. The market was there but the products were not sufficient to keep the tourist in Richards Bay.

One of her secrets ingredient for her success is her ability to create relationships and collaborations with well established tourism product owners. even during her conceptualizing stages she knew that her success was going to be possible only if she create a strong relationship with other stable tourism establishments and she did just that!

When she was gaining momentum and getting well established as a tour operator in Richards Bay, she did not forget about Msinga where she spent most of her childhood. She collaborated with Msinga Drift Khan, an annual car spinning Extravaganza with thousands of spectators and visitors from all over the country. Sne’s role was to create a tourism package for people outside Msinga to attend the car spinning show.

When her business was booming, Covid 19 ruined everything. She had to close shop. However closing shop in her Tourism business led her to open another business which operated at Mzingazi. When the restrictions were eased, she opened a fast food outlets. The business was a success, it attracted people from outside Mzingazi because of her network and her approach in running her business.

When the Covid 19 restrictions were finally lifted, Sne Travel went back to the market. This time with the support of key tourism role players in the City of uMhlathuze, the likes of Indaba Lodge, Dockside Harbohr Cruise, Somopho Hills, Zula Beach and Dayspring. She is also enjoying a healthy relationship with Advantage Tours from St Lucia and countless of other tourism products from outside the City of uMhlathuze.

With all these partners, Sne Travel is reaching for the sky. The company have been recently nominated at the Sebenza Women Awards, the awards that recognizes hardworking women. Not so long ago Metro FM invaded the City of uMhlathuze to promote tourism offerings around the City and Sne Mkhize was amongst the entrepreneurs in the tourism sector that had an opportunity to do an interview which yielded positive results in terms of receiving new market through that interview.