Individual Employment Opp Photographer South Africa

1. Employment Opportunity
Professional Photographer
KwaZulu-Natal, Mpumalanga or Southern Limpopo, South Africa
November 26, 2009
1. The WHL Group (WHL) invites proposals from qualified individuals to provide the
following consulting services: Professional Photography
2. WHL is requesting communication from interested individuals. The communication
must be submitted in writing and signed. They must contain:
a) Expression of understanding of the assignment;
b) Demonstration of dedication to sustainable tourism or sustainable development;
c) Consultant details, with CV or resume;
d) The assignment is expected to take approx 3-4 months in the field, beginning sometime
in February / March 2010 . Consultant to indicate availability during this time period.
3. All communications must be submitted in the English language and contain all
information requested above in reference to the attached Terms of Reference.
Individual consultants are welcome to bid.
The deadline for submission: Wednesday 30th December at 5pm, email to eet-
sa@whlconsulting.com All applications must remain valid for three weeks. For any
clarifications or further inquiries about this notice, please send by email before 18th
December 2010 to eet-sa@whlconsulting.com
4. Preference given to citizens of South Africa.
5. The Selection Criteria are:
Criteria Points
(i). Demonstration of experience in the type of development work 40
required by the assignment
(ii). Demonstration of understanding of the assignment (as per the 40
Terms of Reference)
(iii). Qualifications and competence of the consultant for the 20
Assignment
TOTAL 100 Points
6. An individual consultant will be selected based on the above selection criteria. The top
three candidates will be shortlisted for final comparison. The minimum score required
Page 1 of 6

2. to be shortlisted is 70. The individual consultant achieving the highest score will be
invited for negotiations. Subsequently, a contract will be issued.
7. Confidentiality: All data and information received from WHL Consulting for the purpose
of this assignment are to be treated confidentially and are only to be used in
connection with the execution of these Terms of Reference. The contents of written
materials obtained and used in this assignment may not be disclosed to any third
parties without the expressed advance written authorization of WHL Consulting.
Further details on the services are provided in the attached Terms of Reference. This
assignment is expected to commence in the middle of February 2010.
Page 2 of 6

3. TERMS OF REFERENCE
FOR
PROFESSIONAL PHOTOGRAPHIC EXPERT
BACKGROUND
WHL Africa (WHLA) is the regional branch of the WHL Group (WHL). WHL Africa is the executing
agency of the project, Elevating Experiential Travel – Empowering South African Low Income
Tourism Providers Project (EET-SA) through The Shared Growth Challenge Fund, which is a project
under the Business Trust. This project is being run in association with WHL Consulting (WHLC), a
specialized unit of the WHL Group, which focuses on technical assistance and capacity building for
enterprises at the destination level. WHL has developed a unique business model for enabling micro,
small and medium-sized enterprises (MSME) to be listed and sold online, whilst limiting revenue
leakage. The business model involves having locally owned and operated e-marketplace web portals
connected to a global network (providing hosting, payment gateways, booking engine and web
marketing) and utilizing a common management system.
This e-marketplace model was designed and built from the ground up to meet the special needs of
MSME accommodation providers in the developing world, and has proven to be very successful in
reaching a community of accommodation providers who have not been well served by existing e-
marketplace models. The new model has also allowed booking commissions to be retained on-shore
in the developing countries, further reducing the “leakage” of tourism profits from the developing
world. New ratings schemes called “caring for the customer” and “caring for the destination” have
been added to the WHL sites to encourage MSMEs to improve customer service and to engage in
proactive sustainability initiatives.
WHLC works with the product providers in the developing world (mostly the smaller local hotels,
guesthouses and tour / activity operators) to assess market readiness (readiness for groups like
whl.travel, Expedia, Orbitz and others to sell online); to develop high quality digital content needed
for global distribution in the online world; to build capacity; leverage renewable energy practices;
and to assist with access to finance. WHLC also has a strong commitment to sustainable travel and
has built a focus on sustainable development into all the consulting products and programs in
practice.
With the Business Trust, WHL Africa is implementing a project in the KwaZulu-Natal, Mpumalanga &
Southern Limpopo provinces. The goal is to provide tools to MSME product owners to be able to
participate in the global online marketplace through a variety of activities and tools unique to WHL
and WHLC. To meet the overall goals WHL Africa with WHLC has devised a set of tools and activities
that will be rolled out in each of the destinations. The WHLC tools to be employed are Market
Readiness Assessments, Content Collection Exercises and Market Access Training Seminars. In
addition, WHL Africa will be constructing e-commerce websites. Finally, jointly the two entities will
be developing a tool called the Tourism Development Bank which will allow for this program of
activities to be replicated in other destinations.
Page 3 of 6

4. OBJECTIVES
The overall objective is to improve market access for MSME accommodation and activity providers
through a cluster marketing strategy. The WHL will help them to more effectively market to the
growing independent traveler (FIT) market. The proprietary tool to assess the SMEs, Sustainable
Market Readiness Assessment (SMRA), has the objective to identify accommodation products ready
to participate in marketing directly to a global audience via e-commerce channels, as well as those
nearly ready or not ready at all. For those that are nearly ready or market ready, they will engage in
the next step of the program: the Content Collection Exercise.
It is one thing to have a nice guesthouse or local homestay but it is entirely another thing to have the
professional and high quality digital content (photos and story) needed to sell the product. One of
the biggest needs for SMEs throughout the developing world is this content, without which it will be
impossible to reach a global audience. It is the minimum entry requirement for building market
access. The content needs to be high quality, in the correct format (e.g. digital images in both high
and low resolution formats), and also placed in the hands of the accommodation owners so that
they can use the material to leverage the multitude of distribution channels available to them. The
WHL Consulting Content Collection Exercise is designed specifically to address this need. The
Content Collection Exercise consists of two parts (two separate consultants): A Travel Writer and A
Professional Photographer. This RFP is for the Professional Photographer position.
The CCE Professional Photographer portion is essentially a site visit and photography shoot. Each
CCE can take approximately 45 minutes to 2 hours depending on size of property and number of
photographs required. The Consultant will need to manage the travel and photographic schedule,
calling ahead to confirm appointment time so that at least 3 (average of 4.5) shoots can be
conducted per day.
There will be 2-4 CCE Professional Photographers hired under this project, to cover different
territories. Each CCE Consultant will be assigned to interview between 100-200 MSMEs in total and it
is expected this target can be reached in 3-4 months time, with the expectation that 50 MSMEs are
photographed (inclusive of post-production and upload to the servers) per month. In addition, some
destination photography should be completed in that 3-4 month time period as well. Every two
weeks the Consultant will need to report to the project coordinating office with status updates and
to coordinate the next two weeks of the travel and interview schedules. If the Consultant is able to
shoot more than their agreed targets and if there are more MSMEs to shoot once the agreed target
is reached, the consultant and the project coordinating office may agree upon a rate and time frame
for the Consultant to conduct the additional shoots.
The consultant will be required to undergo 1 day of in-person training with the WHL team at the
start of the assignment and to be available for virtual training with 360 Cities for the panoramic
photography guidelines (see below) and how to use their delivery system.
Page 4 of 6

5. SCOPE OF WORK
Working closely with the appointed WHLC task team leader, tasks the consultant will undertake, will
include:
• Take digital still photographs of Market Ready and Nearly Market Ready Product:
o Photos of exteriors and general photos (exterior, grounds, décor, etc.) (3-5 edited and
final images for delivery to the SME)
o Photos of room types (2-4 final images of each room type)
o Photos of facilities and amenities (3-6 final images)
o Photos of the host of the provider (manager or owner) and any sustainable tourism
initiatives (2-7 final images)
• Create 4 fully-spherical panoramic images for each product. The panoramic images should
be of the same format as on 360cities.net <http://360cities.net> . The panoramic images
will be used to create a virtual tour of each location.
Photographers without panoramic experience will be trained and supported by 360 Cities.
• 25-35 final (edited) destination images for each destination
• Each image will need to be resized so there is a web-sized image and top quality
image of each photo and saved as <Image Description, SME Name, Destination
Name>
• Each image will also need an accommodating caption and alt tag. The caption as a
description of the image and the alt tag as one to two keyphrases.
• Deliver all images on DVD (or multiple DVDs) to WHLC (produce 4 copies of each DVD )
The work done by the consultant will be performed at the consultant’s home base and in the field in
KwaZulu-Natal, Mpumalanga & Southern Limpopo provinces. The assigned territory will depend on
number of consultants hired under this portion, consultant/s home base and based on negotiation.
The anticipated travel schedule is as follows:
Task Number of Approximate Dates Location
Days**
Preparation and Training Approx 5-10 days January / February Home base and in the
2010 field
Shoots, post production Approx 3-4 Start February / In the field, Home
and uploading of photos months March 2010 – Base
Completed by mid
2010
Page 5 of 6

6. QUALIFICATIONS
Successful Applicants should:
• Have 2-3 years of international travel and work experience.
• Have 2-3 year of experience photographing MSMEs.
• Have solid production skills including uploading to CMS driven applications.
• Be able to evidence a strong knowledge of and understanding of the South African
provinces.
• Be committed to a sustainable tourism industry and sustainable development.
• Able to work flexible hours and manage their own time efficiently.
• Regular access to email and Skype for correspondence, coordination and virtual training
with WHLC prior to and during implementation.
• Have their own photographic equipment.
REMUNERATION
The contract will be a lump sum contract for fees. Fees will be commensurate with past experience
and in line with project budget allocations. Reimbursable expenses will be at the cost of the project
either as a reimbursable expense or paid directly by the project. All reimbursable expenses will be
paid out at cost with corresponding documentary evidence.
REPORTING
The consultant will report to Anita Raw, Project Manager.
Page 6 of 6