Since it was established in 2003, Cape Town Routes Unlimited (CTRU — the provincial tourism agency) has cost about R500 million in public funding.  Yet it’s common knowledge that most of its budget is spent on staff and travel, not marketing.

When former Sun International CEO Peter Bacon (whose credentials are impeccable) was appointed CTRU chairperson, he was instructed not to right-size the organisation.  It is two to three times as large as it needs to be – something Winde acknowledges.  Both Winde and Bacon lament leadership and capacity at CTRU that is lacking, “but it’s the best we could get.”

Province’s plan is for a single tourism marketing structure (with the structure still to be defined!) for the whole province that will be overseen by the Province and the City.  You can see Winde’s plan here.

Can anyone have any faith in Province’s new structure?  Surely they should have shown that they can get their house in order before they waste everybody’s time, yet again.  But no… “restructuring” is the way out of their mess…  and a way to access more funding from Cape Town’s ratepayers.

Remember, this plan has largely been driven by the same people at the same tourism department that tried to close Cape Town Tourism (CTT) down in 2002.  They backtracked then in the face of public pressure.

Politicians and bureaucrats do not understand that structures do not guarantee success — it’s only people that guarantee success.  And Province has shown that it cannot attract nor manage the stars that destination marketing needs.

In the mid-1990s, many of Cape Town’s brightest and sharpest minds tried to get involved in tourism and help it grow. Their encounters with all the hot air, talk shops and self-important bureaucrats (who had to demonstrate how important they are by holding cellphone conversations during meetings) chased them away for ever.

It’s no secret that CapeInfo has been critical of CTRU and we have been attacked for our views.  But two CTRU directors wrote to us after they resigned from the CTRU board to say “thank you for not saying: ‘I told you so’.”

Mr Winde, you are wasting everybody’s time once again.  If you had a plan, you wouldn’t need a consultant to drive it.  Your or your consultant’s document just highlights that you are still in search of a solution.

Okay, it’s easy to be critical so what does CapeInfo propose?

• Close down CTRU.  It’s a memory best forgotten.
• Open a brand new and untainted Western Cape Destination Brands office that shares premises and resources with CTT.
• As the dominant partner in provincial marketing — Cape Town does represent nearly 70% of the province’s population and economic activity — CTT should chair provincial marketing efforts.
• The Destination Brands Office would comprise Brand Managers for each region, although there could be additional brand managers for other well-established brands or activities — like Knysna, wine routes, conventions, etc.
• Brand managers, like their counterparts in retail organisations, must be performance-driven.  They must demonstrate bottom-line benefits to the regions and its product owners.  Their tenure depends on their performance, with annual appraisals that are both public and transparent.  There is no room for political agendas.  These brand managers must be strong, dynamic people.

All big projects are realised with big multi-disciplinary teams where participants retain their own corporate identities.  The focus is on shared goals which are more important than any structures and processes.  Destination brands must compete but they must also realise that the only way to get stronger is by working together.  Weaker regions will learn from and be driven by the successes of the stronger regions.  This is a process that could see the whole of the Western Cape emerge as one of the world’s greatest regions.

In a recent interview with CapeInfo, Siva Pillay (CEO of the Tourism Enterprise Partnership) spoke about provincial tourism marketing as being “as dead as a dodo.”   It’s a view he’s been selling to his stakeholders — the Business Trust and the national Department of Tourism.  His views are gaining support, which make Winde’s plan very much yesterday’s solution.  Pillay sees the future in marketing clusters without any of today’s traditional boundaries.

Cities, worldwide, are the new powerhouses for economic growth.  And Gateway Cities, like Cape Town, have so much to offer the smaller rural towns.  Brochure distribution is just one example:  at the French National Tourism Office on the Champs-Élysées in Paris — which is no larger than CTT’s head office public area — one can collect brochures for the whole of France.  It’s incredibly efficient.

Nowhere does Winde’s plan address the leveraging of private sector participation to give meaningful marketing clout.  In an interview some time ago, Peter Bacon made the point that the Table Bay Hotel has a larger marketing budget than CTRU has for the whole province!  What we need to be doing is to find ways for public and private sector to work together.  As a member-based organisation, CTT is already doing that.

Now Province may have a hundred reasons why this cannot be done, all geared so that they can keep control — which makes Winde’s goal of “political immunity” a joke.  They would far rather continue wasting money as they have done rather than have an effective and efficient solution.

You can leave a comment here but, to join the debate, please visit the CapeInfo Forum and do also vote in our poll (in the right hand column).

UPDATE: July 23, 2010
CapeInfo has had calls from Alan Winde and Felicity Purchase, Cape Town’s mayco member for tourism. The document linked above is being amended and we will publish it as soon as we receive it.

Cape Town Tourism has prepared its own proposals (click here) and will be communicating progress to members in future.

Just before the old CTT was disbanded in 2004, CapeInfo almost called for a vote of no confidence in CTT’s board at a special general meeting to discuss the matter. Two days ago CapeInfo informed a CTT board member (in an email to be shared) that we will call for that vote of no confidence if a similar fiasco ever appears likely again. CTT is a member organisation and its greatest strength is its membership. This is not the time for confidential documents, hidden agendas or selfish posturing.

And if FIFA’s presence has been a heavy cost in other ways, maybe their Big Brother demands on government (which just played silly buggers with criminals up to now) will show the way for tackling crime in the future.  Maybe it did take outside interference and the pressure of hosting the World Cup for something to be done.

Government got serious — 41 000 police were deployed around stadiums, fan parks, hotels and tourist sites.  They acquired new helicopters and other equipment,  and set up 56 dedicated World Cup courts across the country.

These are staffed by dedicated prosecutors, detectives, magistrates and interpreters, sitting late into the night to try cases linked to the World Cup.

Justice has never been so quick.  After foreign journalists were robbed at gunpoint in Magaliesberg last Wednesday, police arrested two men the next day and they were tried, convicted and begun serving 15-year sentences on the Friday.

In Nelspruit, police arrested three men a few hours of Chinese journalists were robbed at their lodge.

In Cape Town, a woman who snatched the bag of a Japanese tourist was arrested, tried and convicted a day later.

Most World Cup visitors report that they’ve never felt safer, and that’s the best message they can take home to family and friends.  CapeInfo’s surveys showed that 86% of all visiting fans listed crime and personal safety as their biggest fear before they left home.

A survey by the Institute for Security Studies of 30 convicted house robbers showed most had been involved in over 100 robberies before being arrested. While statistics and logic is never linear, surely this shows that it’s not impossible to make a very big dent into the 18,000 house robberies and 15,000 car hijackings that SA experiences each year?

So when FIFA fly out  after the most profitable World Cup they’ve ever organised, will government go back to its old ways or will these improvements be rolled out to the entire criminal justice system?

CapeInfo's World Cup countdown clock

It’s going to be rather sad seeing the disappearance of the World Cup countdown clock. It has been such a feature on CapeInfo’s home page for over 1,000 days.

Unlike many others which are set to the day, it has been counting down to the actual start of the 2010 FIFA World Cup at 4pm South African time on June 11, 2010.

Do we remove it or reset it so it counts down to the final match? Let us know what you think.

This is the second time the CapeInfo countdown clock has been used. It was developed for CapeInfo in 1997 by Internet Solutions, for the countdown to the new millennium in 2000. So maybe we should be calling it our Millennium Clock!

Bringing it out of hibernation for the World Cup was appropriate. Because this time, the eyes of the world is on South Africa.

As the games are about to start, I keep thinking back to the landmark 1974 general elections in SA. One story that came out of that was about Rupert Lorimer, I think. He was standing for the Progressive Party in Orange Grove… I think. What I do remember was the news report that he had a huge banner covering the whole one wall of his campaign offices saying: “There is no second place.”

Well, whatever happens over the next month and whoever makes it to the finals, one hopes and trusts that South Africa will be the winner in the eyes of the world.

Yes, FW de Klerk is correct when he said the other day that “We South Africans specialise in miracles.” And it was the late Dr Anton Rupert who said, “He who does not believe in miracles is not a realist.”

So… go Bafana Bafana… go for it!

These figures are reflected in the initial results of CapeInfo’s accommodation occupancy survey for the World Cup period.

Many of the comments that accompany the survey results show disbelief and despair, and anger at MATCH, FIFA’s ticketing and accommodation agency.  They dropped the bulk of rooms allocated to them.

Why is CapeInfo not surprised?  Well firstly, it seems that people have very short memories.  A similar scenario played out during the 1995 Rugby World Cup.

Since the middle of last year, CapeInfo has been cautioning readers not to get caught up in the hype — figures of 480,000 foreign visitors, etc.  Simply because 480,000 foreign visitors is not that many.

In a previous post in Spaniard in the Works, we pointed out that South Africa has already hosted 964,000 foreign tourists in one month, without any fanfare.

Now “foreign tourists” includes tourists from Africa.  The highest number of overseas arrivals is 225,000 and we’re not aware of a dramatic increase in the number of aircraft seats into SA to cater for a (revised) 332,000 anticipated overseas tourists.  So maybe that’s wishful thinking too.

What went wrong?  Well one has to start at the top — the Minister of Tourism and his advisors failed to provide the leadership and guidance required of them.  They chose rather to engage “representative organisations” which are not really representative at all.  They also displayed a dazzling lack of insight.

One wonders what discussions, if any, went on at cabinet level about South African Airways price increases of 400%.  Did Marthinus speak to Barbara and did Barbara find a chairperson at SAA to talk to?  Did they really care or did they just leave it to the Competition Tribunal?

FIFA and MATCH should be feeling a little bruised — if they’ve woken up to the fact that they’re not as almighty as they thought they were.  Is Sepp Blatter still “His Excellency”?

And lastly, the product owners.  Remember the old adage, “if it looks too good to be true, it probably is.”  The bonanza bombed because everybody didn’t work as a team, with effective leadership and a combined goal.

Those statistics might still change as more establishments account for their bookings.  And if the major hotel groups add theirs, the true beneficiaries will become evident.

South African accommodation establishments can add their input until June 11 — click here.

It’s not all doom and gloom.  It all depends on whether South Africans embrace Lianne Burton’s call to make 2010 a love affair and not a one-night stand.  What images and stories will the international media be sending home?  Will the media love us enough to make South Africa the most desirable destination in the world?  That’s where the bonanza has to be reclaimed!

My family started shopping at PnP just after Raymond Ackerman bought the company from Jack Goldin in 1967 and I’ve been a loyal PnP shopper ever since.  I met Raymond Ackerman in 1985 when I first worked with him on a project that was a catalyst for the development of the V&A Waterfront and he still inspires me every time we meet.

So having my shopping basket taken away as I arrived at the till to pay and told to go to Shoprite was the ultimate slap in the face.  So much for PnP’s belief in customer sovereignity.

But then Pick n Pay Mokopane must be their worst store in South Africa.  My first experience there was of the rudest staff I’ve ever encountered.

It reminded me of an account when ACSA was established and started managing Cape Town Airport:  “When we arrived, the staff attitude was – what a great little airport we have.  It’s just a pity about the passengers.”

Well it was accepted for PnP Mokopane’s staff to finish discussions with colleagues and friends before attending to customers.  And a parrot-like “Hello-how-are-you-plastic?” was their standard greeting without making any eye contact. (They were also asking if you wanted a plastic bag.)

Was this a Mokopane-wide problem?  No, because the corporate culture at local Woolworths and Checkers still shines through.

And it got worse.  The store was filthy.  PnP-brand milk was often sour. There were often long queues with only a few till points open.  When I complained that roast chickens were often only available at 5.30, the management agreed they had a problem and said they would deliver one as soon as they were ready.  I called at 6pm to find out what was happening — they forgot!

The management lost my bank card after it was handed in by a teller who forgot to give it to me — no apology, just a shrug!

The store does have a very friendly customer service lady who does try very hard.   She commented after a holiday in Cape Town, where she visited PnP stores there, how surprised she was that they all had everything ready for business at opening time…

It was so appalling that I wrote to Jonathan Ackerman saying that it seems as though there is a Shoprite store impersonating PnP.  I was assured that matters are being attended to.

When it didn’t get better, I wrote to Nick Badminton, PnP’s CEO, and had a call from the northern region’s GM to say the store was getting a new manager soon and complaints were being taken seriously.

Now I don’t like complaining and this is the first time I’ve ever complained about a PnP store. I’ve complained for the simple reason that I know PnP can and must be better than what I experienced in Mokopane.  I am proud of PnP’s Cape Town roots.

In the past two months I’ve driven 9,000km around South Africa and I’ve been into scores of PnP stores. At Roodepoort, I complimented a manager and was proudly taken on a tour that explained why it was so special.  “It is a Family PnP,” he said as he showed off a wider range of products than the coporate stores sell.  I experienced the same in stores in KZN and the Western Cape — with Waterfront and Constantia still my favourite corporate stores.

After two months away, there seemed to be little if any improvement but then the new manager had said the store has been managed so badly for the last two years, it will take time to get it right.  But one doesn’t expect to find frozen foods fridges that are empty and have been broken for weeks.

So last week when I bought milk that was sour, I took it back.  The new milk was sour too so it went back the next day.

And that’s when I encountered Aubrey Molefe, the duty manager.  He doesn’t like me — I complained to him about something else once before.  Last time he told me he doesn’t have to listen to my complaints and walked away.

This time he took the milk and said he would inform the supplier.  No apology.  When I said that’s just not good enough, he used his “I don”t have to listen to your complaints” again.  Then who does?  I suggested that he’s in the wrong job with that attitude.  When I said I’m really tempted to write about my bad experiences, his was response was “Please go ahead,” and that I would get my money back … so I walked off to do other shopping, saying “asshole” to the aisles in front of me.

But it was when I got back to the till that I had my basket grabbed away and told to get out, to shop at Shoprite.

So here, Mr Molefe, is the story you urged me to go ahead and write.  It is inspired by you!

It’s this type of man that inspires one to become a shareholder activist — to ask if Corporate PnP is losing it; if that signature on the guarantee is meaningless now that Raymond Ackerman has retired.  To ask if the old spirit of PnP doesn’t lie in family-owned and managed stores?

He’s passionate about the economic benefits it will bring to all the inhabitants of all the 14 towns along the route.

He received a reply from Robin Carlisle, Western Cape minister of transport on April 16, 2010:

“Road traffic signs and the display thereof are controlled in terms of the National Road Traffic Act and the SA Road Traffic Signs Manual, which states amongst others that guidance signs are provided to assist with navigation in accordance with a prescribed methodology. It is also an internationally accepted principle that tourists do pre-trip planning with the aid of maps etc. and then use route numbers and town names which appears on direction signs to navigate along their chosen route.

“My recommendation to you would be to approach your local tourism bureau who would escalate your proposal to the Overberg/Cape Winelands Regional Tourism Bureau. My Department holds quarterly meetings with the respective Regional Toursim Liaison Committees where items of this nature are discussed.”

Surely Robin, economic growth and traveller safety should be the Province’s core concerns so promoting Route 62 as an alternative route must be self-evident.

So why isn’t the Province doing something about it?

And here’s a good example of signage that shows alternative routes:

Road signage on the outskirts of Oudtshoorn en route to Cape Town

The Western Cape is a world-class destination but, obviously, it can always be better.  So here are two open letters – to provincial premier Helen Zille and mayor of Cape Town Dan Plato.

Open letter to Helen Zille

Tourism has never been your strong point but great governance has.  So you must agree that officials must go the extra mile and think out of the box since tourism is the province’s most important industry… and its lifeblood.

There is an opportunity to really drive tourism with great effect into the Western Cape’s country towns but your tourism department seems bogged down in bureaucratic restraints.

A request for signage on the N1 to point out that Route 62 (Worcester to Oudtshoorn) offers and attractive alternative to the N1 received the following response from your chief director of tourism:

“The Department has always supported your request for Route 62 tourism road signage on the N1, with formal submissions provided via the provincial regional Tourism Liaison Committees to the relevant road authorities, SANRAL (SA National Roads Agency) and Provincial Roads on a number of occasions.  As you are aware the road authorities are, by legislation, the custodians of road reserve areas and will not approve tourism route signage on an existing numbered route.”

This is not good enough.  If bureacracies are constipated, a political solution must be found.

What are the key factors that need to be considered?

The N1 north of the Hex River valley is one of the least attractive and most dangerous stretches of road in the Western Cape.  The section between Worcester and Beaufort West passes through one village that offer travellers very little.

Taking the R62 tourist route as a detour only adds 70–100km to the total distance.  It passes through 11 villages that showcase some of the best the Western Cape has to offer.  Most offer excellent tourism products and local produce.  Promoting the detour would have a significant economic impact and travellers who take this route will return!

This is the route that World Cup visitors should be taking if they travel between Cape Town and northern host cities.  And if Gauteng holidaymakers started using this route, these towns would see a sustainable benefit.

It’s a no-brainer.  Can you make it happen?

Open letter to Dan Plato, mayor of Cape Town

I was a tourist in Cape  Town for about a week.  It’s no wonder that it’s one of the world’s top cities.

But two things soured the visit.  A Metrorail security guard told us to stop photographing the beautiful old Victorian railway station at Muizenberg without official permission.  We slammed Melrose Arch for the same policies in a previous post here.  It’s unacceptable and happens frequently, we’re told.

Please let everybody in Cape Town know that it has to be a tourist-friendly city and that photographs are the memories visitors share back home.

The second sour note stems from idiotic City signage at Camps Bay beach.  We walked the entire length of the Camps Bay promenade and back again.  I am aware of dog-walking restrictions during summer.  I looked for signs and saw none, saw dogs on the beach and assumed that the summer restrictions had ended.

After picnicking on the lawn, I took my leashed pets for a walk.  As I was leaving the beach 40 minutes later, two beach constables stopped me and issued a ticket for walking the animals.

They were polite but not interested in my reasoning… because there are signs which you only see when you leave the beach.  You don’t see them when you look from the sidewalk because they face the beach,

Please get someone intelligent to review all the City’s signs and can I send you the ticket I received?

It’s a stunning piece of urban design and architecture. It’s a stunning environment with great shops and places to eat or relax.

You may have coffee, a meal or go shopping there, but you may not take any memories home or show your friends how great the place is.

I was stopped for taking photographs. “Where’s the sign saying no photography?” I asked. “There isn’t one,” was the reply “but it is in the rules. If you want to take photographs, you need to fill in a form to get permission. And you have to pay if you publish any of the photographs you take.”

What utter claptrap, what stupidity! Doesn’t Rennie Property, who manage the complex, understand the importance of tourism and the benefits of free exposure? Their rule is an embarrassment to the security guards who have to enforce it. And imagine enforcing it during the World Cup!

If you own a property that hopes to boost earnings from tourism, would you appoint Rennie Property to manage it? Would the V&A Waterfront be SA’s number one tourist attraction if it imposed a rule like that?

Leaving the Melrose Arch precinct brought back memories of the dying, macho days of PW Botha’s old regime — tank traps that rose out of the tarmac were installed at the entrance to Parliament. Melrose Arch’s version are steel tyre-shredders that will rip the guts out of most cars. I know this is Johannesburg… but one doesn’t need visible reminders of how rough the city is all the time.

Pity… it’s really such a nice place. Here are a few pics (which we refuse to pay for) which show why.

Stepping from the parking garage to this does put one in the right mood to enjoy the complex.

A feeling of the Town Square with pedestrian shopping malls, and wonderful attention to detail.

The shops, coffee shops and restaurants alongside the malls will keep you coming back.

This is one of the few places in Johannesburg that's a pleasure to walk around -- you're out of doors and there is always something to catch your eye and draw you closer.

Just a great place to be...

Postscript: Vanessa Clark, Rennie Property’s PR consultant, responded to this in the comments and subsequently reported: “I have been informed that the Rennie Property team at Melrose Arch have met again with the security manager and clarified the situation with regards to photography. I have been assured this will resolve any miscommunication or misunderstanding that might have taken place. I’ll keep an eye on the matter though, as this is something important that we need to get right.

“Thanks again for raising the issue.”

RAI Amsterdam won contract for the management of the CTICC and Dirk was seconded to head things up, building local capacity and implementing skills transfer. I asked him what the biggest surprise was when he started working in Cape Town. “We expected Cape Town to be a typical Mediterranean city, where things get done ‘tomorrow’. It’s not like that at all! If someone says they’ll do something, they do it. If it’s promised for Tuesday, it’s done by Tuesday.”

(Something else quite mind-blowing was his statistic that Cape Town holds a 25% market share for all conferences hosted on the entire African continent!)

And that reminded me of something Chris Moerdyk, veteran marketing man, said some while back. He went into semi-retirement and moved to Cape Town from Johannesburg.

He said that it takes half a day to do things in Cape Town that would take a day in Johannesburg.

So it’s not surprising that events like the Design Indaba. Jazz Festival, Cycle Tour, etc, are the enormous successes that they are. Less talk, more action!

The interview with Dirk will be published soon.

* Cape Town in Afrikaans is “Kaapstad”. Some people, usually from up-country, like the derogatory “Slaapstad” which means sleepy town.

Few people will take part in surveys unless they see benefit or there is entertanment value. CapeInfo’s surveys aim to provide participants with immediate benefit.

Our new global Fans Survey will get to know the fans, their needs, concerns and desires before they set foot in South Africa. We’ll try to answer many of their concerns and also help them make the most of their trips. Trial surveys will start testing in the next month in key foreign markets.