About Us

David Frost has an extensive background in sector strategy, both from a public and private sector perspective. A trained economist, having graduated with an Economics Honours degree from UCT in 1987, David worked for the Food and Allied Workers' Union (FAWU) as well as the economic think tanks of COSATU and the ANC prior to democracy in 1994.

He joined The Premier Group (turnover 1996 - US$ 6 billion - employed 14,000) as Group Economist in 1994, where his duties included exploring investment opportunities in Africa. He further played a leading role in the process of de-regulating the agro-food sector and developing strategies to enhance the competitiveness of various sub-sectors. By 1998 he headed the corporate strategy division of the Group, as well as serving as a non-executive director on boards of two subsidiary companies - Sodexho and Premier Foods.

Following the unbundling of the group in late 1998, he was seconded as Special Adviser to the South African Minister of Environmental Affairs & Tourism, Pallo Jordan, and later to Minister Valli Moosa. David led the process of establishing the vibrant public private partnership that currently underpins and funds tourism in South Africa. Having overseen the process that negotiated funding and structures, he chaired the South African Tourism Marketing Partnership Committee (SMPC) and was responsible for developing the marketing strategy, with a budget of US$32 million, to position South Africa internationally as a tourism destination. He then headed up the public-private sector team that implemented the international marketing effort.

After completing his one-year contract as Special Adviser to the Minister, David joined Tourvest, at the time, the largest listed tourism group in southern Africa, as Sales Director. After six months he was promoted to Managing Director of the Inbound Division. At that stage the division comprised 13 companies. David was responsible for crafting a successful synergistic divisional strategy. David resigned from Tourvest prior to the acquisition of the company by the Imperial Group in June 2001.

Originally established Fuller Frost and Associates in 2011, the company was re-branded in 2011 as The Tourism Strategy Company. The following work has been undertaken to date:

  • Completed a global sales strategy for Thompsons Tours (2002)
  • Advised the provincial and city government tourism departments in the Western Cape and the City of Cape Town on appropriate process, structure and strategy for unifying the disparate tourism bodies in that region (2003)
  • Developed a sales strategy for Arabella Sheraton Hotel Group - Southern Africa (2003)
  • Prepared a business plan and marketing strategy for the Namibian Tourist Board (NTB), contracted by the European Union (2003) - this was developed into the Namibian Tourism Growth plan Retained by NTB and Air Namibia to drive the implementation of Namibia Tourism Growth Plan (Aug 2003 - Oct 2005)
  • Consulted to Wilderness Safaris on sales & marketing strategy for new product brand (Nov 2005 - Feb 2006)
  • Developed a Growth Strategy for Wilderness Safaris - Namibia (Jan - Apr 2006)
  • Contracted by the Emerging Markets Group to assist in the organisation of Tourism 2006
  • SADC Investment Partnership Conference, Windhoek October 2006
  • Retained by the Tourism Enterprise Program (TEP) to pilot the High Potential Client Initiative for selected top performing SMMEs in TEP stable, enabling companies to become fully fledged tourism enterprises (Aug 2006 - Mar 2008)
  • Contracted by Regional SDI programme to advise on tourism aspects of Central African Corridor SDI (Oct 2007)
  • Contracted to undertake a scoping study of current state of tourism in Zambia for the Zambia Tourism Board and Tourism Council of Zambia (January - March 2008)
  • Contracted to develop a trade growth strategy by Tourism KwaZulu-Natal (June 2008 - May 2009)
  • Contracted by Newmark Hotels to develop a sales growth strategy (Jan - May 2009)
  • Contracted by Thebe Tourism Group to develop a group growth strategy and advise on implementation thereof (May - Nov 2009)
  • Contracted by the Eastern Cape Tourism Board to develop a trade growth strategy (Nov 2009 - July 2010)
  • Global sales strategy for Pezula Resort Hotel & Spa (March - Dec 2010)
  • Contracted by Millennium Challenge Account - Namibia as private sector expert on technical evaluation of tourism bids (July 2010)
  • Contracted by Ilios Travel to refine sales growth strategy (Feb 2011 - ongoing)
  • Contracted to develop a tourism strategy and action plan for Inhambane province in Mozambique by PACDE (July 2011 - ongoing)
  • Contracted as lead consultancy to develop a national Tourism Growth and Development Strategy for Namibia by the Ministry of Environment and Tourism of the Republic of Namibia (Oct 2011 - June 2012)
  • Sales growth strategy for The Collection by Liz McGrath (Sep 2012 - May 2013)
  • David Frost was appointed by the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) as its Advisor in Africa and the Indian Ocean Islands in January 2007. The WTTC is the peak private sector body, representing the top 100 companies in tourism internationally.