This week’s Letter to the Editor comes from Owner of Tented Adventures, Wynand du Toit. He shared his experience with the UIF TERS application in this article. Here he gives his views on the future of the South African tourism industry.
“This is my approach to tourism and, more specifically, the safari tourism industry. Do I have a crystal ball? No, not at all. My bullish approach comes from a few years of riding the tourism wave, following trends and developments.
Many years ago, Zimbabwe adventure tourism experienced a severe decline in business and, by default, the tour operators that placed business with Zimbabwean suppliers also suffered. Then a small town in Mpumalanga stepped up.
Hazyview turned into this adventure capital with safaris on offer, complemented by a new range of adventure activities, restaurants and accommodation providers. It became a destination.
Now 20 years later, the tourism industry is in a reset mode. Not a ‘new normal’. I hate using that term. We now have the luxury of time and not money, unfortunately, to reset ourselves.
We need to use this time to look at our product offerings, pricing, expenses, and itineraries and take control of our product. I can remember Indabas where we really stepped up the game, and selling was the game, but then we became comfortable and started focusing on the parties and casual greetings. I find there is a new urgency in selling ourselves and this comes back to our products and the control.
I spent the past 60 days working on raising capital, funding and investment to expand our business, as I believe smaller properties and experiences will be the first to reopen and operate. This is simply because they have fewer staff, can more easily maintain a proper protocol, accommodate fewer people and, by default, be more compliant. This is my opinion and not a scientifically proven fact.
Unfortunately, the investor market sentiment is very negative and the most common response is ‘no, we currently have no interest in the tourism and hospitality industry due to the unsure start’. The negative investor sentiment is also fuelled by the negative marketing of our country found on social media pages like Facebook.
I am no Warren Buffet, but if I had a few million rand, this would be the industry I’d invest in, and I would be aggressive in my approach. I have a few ideas and, again, they are ideas on paper but I believe they could add value to our industry and reset our way of operating.
Having said this, it’s back to the phonebook, Google and emails for me, testing the market, harassing the people with money and working on convincing them to part with a few rand to save our industry.”
