Boitumelo Caroline Rasethuntsa’s academic journey started at Technikon Northern Gauteng where she obtained her National Diploma and Bachelor of Technology degree in Management. Her constant quest for knowledge drove her to study towards a Postgraduate Diploma in Strategic Management at the University of Waikato in Hamilton New Zealand. She then pursued her Master of Management Studies at the same university, where she passed with first class honours.
Becoming a lecturer motivated her to even further her academic studies and in February 2018 she commenced her PhD journey in the Tourism field. She decided to conduct research in this field due to her passion for small businesses and in particular, for tourism-related businesses. The title of her thesis was “Strategies to upsurge limited tourism trade opportunities in Lesotho”. Lesotho’s tourism performance is still lagging when compared to other African countries and globally. Her research identified several strategies that can assist in the future development of Lesotho’s tourism. Some of her recommendations to overcome public and private sector tourism challenges in Lesotho were based on those strategies that have been successfully implemented in other developing countries. The recommendations made about tourists’ service quality satisfaction focused on paying attention to tourists prior to arrival, as well as during tourists’ stay, as these tourists can influence other potential tourists’ perceptions of the expected tourist experience in Lesotho via word-of-mouth.
Her PhD journey did not come without challenges. She had to travel home frequently and would alternate her stay with four weeks in Port Elizabeth and four weeks in Lesotho. As a mother, it was difficult leaving her family on their own for long periods of time. She acknowledged the huge role her supervisor Prof Sandra Perks played with her continued words of encouragement, providing guidance, sharing knowledge and being her mentor. This inspired her to persevere and complete her PhD study in only two years. Her advice to those wishing to pursue a PhD is to manage their time wisely, befriend other PhD students, keep going, and most importantly to pray hard. The amount of work that goes into writing a PhD is humongous, and only perseverance will lead to achievement.