Tag Archives: Tourism Act 2004

Wesgro Chief Marketing Officer Judy Lain a breath of fresh air for Tourism!

Wesgro Judy Lain Whale Cottage PortfolioI was recently told that Wesgro had finally appointed a Marketing head after looking since April 2012.  I called Judy Lain, its new Chief Marketing Officer, and was able to set up an appointment to meet her after her trip to South America.  We agreed to meet last Friday at Café Paradiso, on Judy’s recommendation.

All I knew about Judy was that she was better known as Judy During, and had run an advertising agency called 34 Woman, focusing on generating information about women’s purchasing behaviour, being responsible for not only FMCG but also big ticket brand decisions in their households.  Prior to that she worked at Inviseo Media, at Bester Burke Underground, and at draftfcb, therefore having a practical marketing and advertising background.   Our telephonic interaction in setting up the meeting was very different to the bureaucracy I experienced when I arranged to meet with Wesgro CEO Nils Flaatten.  Judy answered the phone herself, sounded friendly and bubbly, and decided that we should meet over lunch.

We had forgotten to describe one another over the phone, but we both Continue reading →

Western Cape Tourism industry must operate at 110%, says Tourism Minister Winde!

Minister Alan Winde has encouraged the Western Cape Tourism industry to offer its clients excellent service.  ‘We cannot have any of our attractions and destinations not operating at 110%’, he told a media conference on Monday, given that Tourism generates R18 billion per year in revenue from 1,4 million tourists for the Western Cape.

Minister Winde would like to grow the Tourism numbers and revenue, saying that this is only possible if ‘we all work Better Together’. Addressing the axing of SAA’s London-Cape Town Route, Minister Winde said he would welcome the reinstatement of the route (intimated by the new SAA CEO last week), and that the focus is on bringing tourists from other parts of the country and Africa directly to Cape Town.  He mentioned that Lufthansa’s new Cape Town – Munich direct flights need to be well-filled for the service to be continued. Flights from Northern Italy are also being considered.

The Tourism Act 2004 is in the process of being repealed, and the Wesgro Act is being amended. A new Western Cape Tourism Trade and Investment Bill is in draft form, and input is being sought from roleplayers in the province.

Latest Tourism arrival statistics presented by national Tourism Minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk continue to astound Western Cape operators, who are not seeing the reported 10,5% growth for the first half of this year relative to the same period in 2011, with 4,4 million arrivals, of which 1,2 million were international tourists, according to Fin24. Growth was strong from Brazil and China in particular, as well as from India.  ‘We are very encouraged to see that our carefully formulated tourism growth strategy to increase tourist arrivals to South Africa is yielding the desired results, with excellent growth achieved in the markets where we are actively marketing destination South Africa, and good returns being realised in markets that we have identified as sources of strong tourism potential for our country’, said Minister van Schalkwyk.  In a rare reference to the Tourism industry, President Jacob Zuma congratulated his Department of Tourism and the industry on the good growth performance!

A report entitled ‘South Africa Travel and Tourism Market 2016 Forecast’, prepared by ReportsnReports.com, provides the following feedback about our country’s Tourism trends:

*   South Africa is the second most visited country in Africa, after Morocco

*   Domestic Tourism has declined from 36 million trips to 24 million in the past five years.

*   The FIFA World Cup 2010 led to an oversupply of accommodation, causing occupancy to plummet, a problem prevalent in Cape Town.

The industry has been critical of the national Tourism Minister’s information, not reflecting the experience of tourism operators, but the Minister stands by his statistics.  One must then ask the provincial Minister why so few of these international tourists are making it down to the Cape, and what he and Wesgro are doing about the lack of seats on SAA to Cape Town from Johannesburg on Fridays, given his goal to grow tourism to our province.

Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio: www.whalecottage.com Twitter: @WhaleCottage

Wesgro’s marketing of Western Cape: around the world in 80 days already!

After having met Wesgro CEO Nils Flaatten two months ago, a week after he had taken over the responsibility for marketing the Western Cape from Cape Town Routes Unlimited, which organisation was incorporated into the trade and investment promotion agency on 2 April this year, we requested feedback about the progress made in marketing the region. Mr Flaatten had asked the industry to give him a month to get the organisational integration completed. An e-mail request for feedback on the marketing progress earlier this month led to an invitation by Mr Flaatten to meet with him on Tuesday.

The most exciting news for the local tourism industry, and Mr Flaatten’s first major challenge, is the 5 July meeting called with SAA’s General Manager Theuns Potgieter by Wesgro with 15 players in the Western Cape, including local and city government, an Eastern Cape tourism marketing body representative, and larger tourism companies, to discuss SAA’s decision to cut its Cape Town-London route as of 15 August. The airline will be asked to motivate its decision in culling the route.  Joint destination marketing between the Western Cape and SAA in bringing in tourists from destinations such as Beijing, Sao Paulo, Mumbai, Melbourne, various African destinations, and Buenos Aires will be discussed too.   Subsequent meetings will be held with the airlines which will continue to serve the Cape Town-London route, including BA, Virgin, and Emirates, to discuss bringing in more flights to Cape Town.

The parking organisation was perfect, and Mr Flaatten chose for us to go to Doppio Zero on St George’s Mall for the meeting.  He had copies of the slides which he used for his recent presentation at FEDHASA Cape’s AGM, which I had requested via his secretary, but the wait was worthwhile, as Mr Flaatten was able to explain his points in greater detail.  Mr Flaatten is a very precise person, and he referred repeatedly and proudly to the progress that he and his new team have made in the ‘two months and 19 days’ since their integration. In the past 80 days Wesgro has undertaken the following Marketing activities:

*   Mr Flaatten and Solly Fourie, Head of the Western Cape Department of Economic Development and Tourism, accompanied an (unnamed) Chairman of a JSE-listed hotel company to Buenos Aires, to meet six outbound tour operators. Mr Flaatten praised their product knowledge of the Western Cape. He said that the withdrawal of the Cape Town-Buenos Aires Air Malaysia route is a serious blow to tourism from Argentina. His journey from Cape Town to Buenos Aires via Johannesburg took 24 hours, previously a direct flight of 7 hours flying west.

*   Bjorn Hufkie from Wesgro’s Conventions Bureau accompanied the (unnamed) Managing Director of a JSE-listed hotel company to Saudi Arabia and Kuwait

*    Participated in exhibitions: Arabian Travel Market in Dubai, IMEX 2012 in Frankfurt (incentive travel, meetings and events); and Indaba in Durban. Mr Flaatten said that all six the RTOs were represented on the Western Cape stand, and that they will ‘raise the bar’ for 2013.

*   Debbie Damant has been part of SA Tourism’s marketing mission to China and Japan

*   Met with Cape Town Tourism, the largest RTO (regional tourism organisation) of the six in the Western Cape, asking some ‘tough questions’ of them

*   Met with Eden RTO, and some of its LTO’s (local tourism bureaus)

*   Met with SAA at Indaba (prior to SAA’s bombshell announcement about the Cape Town-London route)

*   The Western Cape Tourism Barometer for the fourth quarter of 2011 was released.

*   The Wesgro website has been updated, incorporating its new additional Destination Marketing role, clicking through to the tourism information previously on the Cape Town Routes Unlimited website

*  One of the greatest achievements is the detailed listing of over 100 events in the province in the next six months, with detailed information about each event

*   Organisationally, the activities and marketing focus of the six RTOs (Cape Town, West Coast, Eden, Cape Winelands, Central Karoo, and Overberg), and its tourism bureaus within the municipalities within the RTOs have been captured, within a Customer Relationship Management program.  An intensive Facebook campaign to interlink and like the LTOs and RTOs is underway.

Looking ahead for the next 10 months the focus will be to deliver on the Annual Performance Plan in respect of destination marketing; create operational efficiency, effectiveness and cost savings, which savings will go into the Events budget, Mr Flaatten said; fill staff vacancies; strengthening relationships with the RTO’s and LTO’s, international airlines operating from Cape Town International, tourism trade bodies, SA Tourism, and other national tourism bodies; ‘impactful marketing and advertising of the destination’, website integration and marketing strikes in respect of tour operators, to keep up the ‘share of mind’; aggressively market the Conventions Bureau, pushing conferences into the provincial towns and villages too; stimulate Events and fund smaller events; and SMME development.   Wesgro is pitching to host SIAL Cape Town, which would become a fantastic new food event creating a ‘Global Food Marketplace’, already held in Paris and China, and is planned to be hosted in our winter months, to address Seasonality.  The Western Cape Tourism Marketing Plan is expected to be ready by September.  Inter-provincial travel within the Western Cape will be an important focus.  Mr Flaatten was requested to provide feedback on what Wesgro is doing for the tourism industry as frequently as possible, all media communication to ourselves having been terminated since Wesgro took over.  We fed back that the Tourism Bureaus are not passing on Wesgro’s information to its members, which seemed to surprise him.

Mr Flaatten provided a copy of the latest Tourism Barometer, surprisingly signed off by Calvyn Gilfellan, former CEO of the ex-Cape Town Routes Unlimited. In the last quarter of last year 216000 international tourists arrived in Cape Town, a welcome increase of 15% over the same period a year before.  Domestic arrival growth was far lower in the same period, at 4%, with just under 1 million visitors.  A large part of the report contains statistics of visitor numbers to the province’s key tourism attractions, and to the RTO’s local tourism bureaus, a very unreliable tourism barometer, given that fewer visitors require the information or booking services of tourism bureaus, doing most of their bookings at home via the internet before their departure.

Organisationally, the integration between the ex-Cape Town Routes Unlimited staff is complete, section 197 of the Labour Relations Act having been followed, in that all staff (also the Wesgro staff) were offered staff benefits at the higher level of those offered by Wesgro and Cape Town Routes Unlimited, so that all Wesgro staff now receive the same benefits.  A Memorandum of Understanding, a Memorandum of Agreement, and a budget have been signed by the Joint Working Committee guiding the integration. The Annual Performance Plan of Cape Town Routes Unlimited has been transferred to Wesgro.   For the financial year April 2012/March 2013, Wesgro now has a total budget of just more than R51 million, 45% being for Cape Town Routes Unlimited funding.  All ex-Cape Town Routes Unlimited staff now have Wesgro contracts, e-mail addresses, and business cards.  Staff have been grouped by functionality and accommodated on the 7th and 12th floors of the Waldorf building.  Provincial Tourism Minister Alan Winde’s department is working on repealing the Tourism Act of 2004, which will close down the Board of the ex-Cape Town Routes Unlimited, which currently has to remain operative as long as the current Act is in place.

Wesgro needs to start from the beginning in gaining the confidence of its Western Cape tourism constituency, which had little faith in its predecessor Cape Town Routes Unlimited. The outcome of the 5 July SAA meeting will be a crucial test of its negotiating skills. In addition, it will be judged on its ability to communicate with the tourism industry on a regular basis, via traditional media channels as well as Social Media marketing.

Wesgro, Waldorf Arcade, 80 St George’s Mall, Cape Town.  Tel (021) 487-8600. www.wesgro.co.za Twitter: @Wesgro

Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio: www.whalecottage.com Twitter:@WhaleCottage

Province cries foul about City tourism funding

 

New MEC for Finance, Economic Development and Tourism, Garth Strachan, has written to Mayor Helen Zille, asking the City to reconsider its withdrawal of funding from Cape Town Routes Unlimited.

 

He writes: “For inexplicable reasons the City of Cape Town has set up a parallel structure to the destination marketing organisation, Cape Town Routes Unlimited (CTRU) and withdrawn its funding from CTRU and Wesgro, the provincial trade and investment promotion agency. “

 

“This appears to make no constitutional, economic or practical sense. Efforts by the provincial government to resolve these issues to the mutual satisfaction of both province and city have come to nought. I therefore publicly appeal to you, in the interests of the people and the Province, to reconsider these actions.”

 

“When she assumed office in August 2008, Premier Lynne Brown said the provincial government would do all in its power to ensure relations between Province and the City were repaired in the interests of efficient public service provision to the people of the region. “

 

“This, the Premier said, applied to all areas where the provincial government worked with the City: road construction, public transport, preparations for 2010, health provision, economic development and so forth. “

 

“The Premier specifically instructed that whatever reservations the City may have had with regard to structure, functioning and operations of Wesgro and CTRU should be addressed and resolved to the mutual satisfaction of both city and province. This could include restructuring the Boards of both organisations, and any other changes that might be reasonably accommodated. “

 

“We hoped the departure of former ID Councillor Simon Grindrod might signal a change of heart and a commitment to co-operation between the two governments. But no change has been forthcoming now that the DA’s Councillor Nielsen has taken control.”

 

“It is difficult to make sense of the City’s approach to these matters.  How can the duplication of costs, personnel and programmes be justified? How can a withdrawal of funds to Wesgro and the threat this poses to the provincial economy be justified? Was the willingness of the Provincial Government to make changes the City felt were needed to both organisations insufficient grounds to work together? “

 

“In the case of CTRU, an agreement to ensure shared custody by the Province and City to promote Cape Town and the Western Cape as a tourist destination is underpinned by Provincial Legislation, which is now being flouted. “

 

“Cape Town Tourism, hitherto responsible for tourism information centres, has been tasked with marketing Cape Town on its own and distinct from the Province as a whole. By so doing the City will duplicate costs, personnel and marketing operations aside from the fact that there will of necessity be a long time lag as new staff are employed and programmes put in place. In fact, Cape Town Tourism has not been able to spend the approximately R11 million which would have otherwise been spent on international marketing by CTRU since the withdrawal of funding by the City. “

 

“As a recession looms and all sectors of the economy begin to feel the squeeze, a failure to spend these funds on international marketing efforts will undoubtedly have an impact on tourism in the Province in the year to come. “

 

“Under the constitution, local government has no mandate for trade promotion or industry development and the City would not be constitutionally entitled to undertake these activities on its own. The withdrawal of funds from Wesgro, ironically set up by the City and the Chamber of Commerce in 1982, means that programmes to promote trade and investment have been placed under immediate threat and the management and staff of that organisation put under enormous uncertainty and strain. “ 

“CTRU, with the Department of Economic Development, has been successful in securing a collective Western Cape Tourism Development Framework. Business, labour, civil society and government have developed this shared vision of a sustainable, labour absorbing and globally competitive tourism sector. “

 

“We cannot afford the confusion of two marketing organisations. It is impossible to market Cape Town without including the wine routes of the Boland or whale watching in Hermanus. Confusion has been created in the tourism market place and great harm is being done to 2010 marketing because CTRU is now under-resourced and CTT is unable to spend the City’s funds allocated to it. “

 

“Tourism is the jewel in the crown of our provincial economy. It depends on competitive marketing in a world where international tourists are being lured by competitors with huge marketing budgets. There is no doubt that the City’s moves in relation to CTRU will harm tourism numbers and we will lose ground in the special opportunity to market the destination for the long term that 2010 represents. The provincial government has avoided going the route of court battles with respect to the City withdrawal from CTRU and Wesgro. After numerous failed efforts in meetings and in correspondence and in the interests of all the people of the Province, I publicly appeal to the City to reconsider its actions.”

 

“The only logical and sustainable route to follow is to work together to make both Wesgro and CTRU work even better to fight poverty and unemployment and unlock development for the Province. Go-it-alone strategies will build animosity where there should be co-operation and build divisions where national, provincial and local governments should be working together to grow the economy and roll back poverty. “

 

Strachan’s letter to Mayor Zille is a surprise, as it comes nineteen months after the City gave notice of its intention to withdraw its funding from CTRU, and seven months after the actual withdrawal.     The City of Cape Town was justified in withdrawing its funding from CTRU, as a report by consultants appointed by the City had found the organisation to be inefficient in meeting its mandate to market the City and the province. 

 

Premier Lynne Brown held Strachan’s position before she became Premier, and did not appear to make any great effort to bridge the divide between Cape Town Tourism and CTRU at that time.  In fact, the Province was seen to be the dominant partner in the relationship.

 

Originally, CTRU was formed to avoid duplication in marketing Cape Town and the Western Cape.   However, CTRU persists in marketing Cape Town, even though the City of Cape Town has withdrawn its funding and Cape Town Tourism is designated to do this job.  CTRU should focus on marketing the province,  and Cape Town Tourism on the city of Cape Town.    CTRU has a representative on the Board of Cape Town Tourism, even though this new clause in the Cape Town Tourism constitution did not make sense at the time.   This should allow close co-operation and should prevent duplication . 

 

Cape Town Tourism’s handling of the marketing for Cape Town is constitutional, as the association amended its Constitution to take on this role and was supported by its membership in voting for it to do so.    Cape Town Tourism has had a participative and open discussion about its Marketing strategy, and has allowed various tourism representatives to provide input to the formation of the Marketing strategy for the City.     Cape Town Tourism is appointing new Marketing staff, but appears to be doing so in a constructive and economic manner, and not building a fat cat organisation that was CTRU.

 

The Tourism Act of 2004 for the Western Cape is in urgent need of replacement.  The Act was designed to legally decree the design of what was to become CTRU.   It is an established body now.  No guidance is given in the Act about the organisation of and relationship between CTRU and the tourism bureaus in every city and town in the province.    Cape Town Tourism’s marketing activities are not a “parallel structure” to CTRU – Cape Town Tourism is not replicating CTRU.

 

Ian Nielson has only been in his post of new Head of Tourism in the City for about 2 weeks, so he may not yet have had enough time to study the relationship between the two bodies.  However, he was a Mayoral Committee member that voted to withdraw funding from CTRU.

 

Last but not least, the marketing of Cape Town and 2010 cannot be endangered by the divide, as claimed by Mr Strachan.