City tourism gets another shot

IT is no secret that past attempts to create a meaningful tourism association in the City of uMhlathuze have been spectacular failures.

Starting out filled with enthusiasm and energy, various committees soon tired of the lack of progress that invariably ended in dead-ends.

This is surprising, as the city’s tourism assets are incredibly vast, especially those based around the natural environment: sea, beach, angling, water and board sports, etc.

And then, of course, the close proximity to wildlife, heritage, cultural and other attractions.

Add to that the ‘summer all year round’ climate and we should be pulling in tourists by the tens of thousands.

While there might be many versions of why this has not happened, a new opportunity has been presented which could work.

The inaugural uMhlathuze Community Tourism Organisation (CTO) annual general meeting was held last week.

At its core is a White Paper which at last gives structure and guidelines to tourism here and elsewhere in the province.

At the heart of the new philosophy is the fact that tourism must be driven by product owners themselves – those who stand to gain the most and who best understand the needs of tourists.

This cuts through a broad cross-section of product owners, from travel to accommodation, tours, arts and crafts, transport, retail and a host of other sectors.

And these would range from the largest to the ‘one-man’ operators, the idea being that all local communities have access to tourism opportunities.

But: how do people who are busy running their own businesses get the funds and resources in these tough economic times to also make a meaningful contribution to the bigger tourism picture?

The answer is that the new CTO system has built-in resource provision.

At the top of the pyramid is the Department of Economic Development and Tourism, giving input and assistance at a national and provincial level, where Tourism KZN is also a chief driver.

All the CTO’s are aligned to the district council tourism offices and collectively are represented on the Community Tourism Association, which takes their needs and problems to a level.

Since all tourism product owners are required to affiliate to a CTO to obtain necessary operating permits, their affiliation fees become a source of revenue for the CTO, so that committee members will not be out of pocket.

In addition, municipalities are mandated to fund at least 50 percent of the CTO’s budget, in cash or kind.

This will take care of office expenditure, brochures and the like.

A steering committee under guidance from the city has brought the CTO into existence.

We trust now that all those with an interest in tourism will give it their full backing.