The old ANC-run provincial government in the Western Cape made a quick appointment of new directors of the Board of Cape Town Routes Unlimited (CTRU) before it vacates its offices due to the election results, having suffered a heavy defeat in the 22 April provincial elections.
The Board is once again run by Chairman Peter Bacon, ex-Sun International CEO. Other members include Phillip Couvaras, Chairman of FEDHASA Cape, who at the time of his election at FEDHASA last year did not know what Cape Town Routes Unlimited stood for; Vernon Kirsten, the ex-Chairman of SATSA; Tembi Kunene, the CEO of the Tourism Grading Council; Deon Cloete, the General Manager of the Airports Company Cape Town branch; Annemie Liebenberg, Marketing Manager of the V & A Waterfront; Labeeqah Schuurman, Head of the provincial Department of Economic Development and Tourism; Mangaliso Mdlalo, chairman of Business Western Cape; Stephen de Vries of the Eden District Municipality; and Chrissie Brink of the Cape Winelands District Municipality.
The Board is City dominated, which is a surprise, given the City of Cape Town’s withdrawal of its funding from CTRU. Two City seats are still vacant. CTRU should be focusing on marketing the rest of the province while Cape Town Tourism has been given the mandate to market Cape Town. What is also obvious is that there is no representation of small accommodation players – FEDHASA and SATSA represent the large tourism players in the main, and are not in touch with small accommodation establishments.
A relief is the demise of Tony Ehrenreich of COSATU, who served on the Board for a number of years, probably with a trade-off that he was not allowed to comment about tourism at all, which he was fond of doing in a most destructive manner, whilst serving on the board to represent hospitality industry labour.
It will be interesting to see how the DA-led province will deal with the two separate tourism bodies Cape Town Tourism and Cape Town Routes Unlimited, and whether they will revert to one united CTRU!
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