Two Bits – 20 June 2014

Least year we saluted the Father of Ballito, Jack Nash, on the occasion of his 100th birthday. One of the significant acts that Jack performed while living in Ballito, apart from selling a whole lot of the first properties, was to set up the first publicity association.
Ballito was but a seaside village then, yet a great deal of effort was put into promoting the region as a holiday destination. And why should Jack the estate agent and members of that first committee – Barbara Shingler from the post office, Tony Burningham the chemist, Bruce Jones the vet and Ron Stevens the caravan park owner, care about promoting tourism? It was about money. It’s always about the money.
More holidaymakers, visitors, tourists – call it what you will – meant more money in everybody’s pockets. Entice people away from the South Coast and have them spend their money here.
The publicity association flourished for years. Well, flourished might be a bit rich. It always battled for money, but every year it managed to produce a brochure or two and distribute them at tourism indabas. We had Getaway magazine visit and write a favourable article, got a couple of shows on TV, all not bad going for a small town.
The point is that the committee members, all volunteers, cared about how the area was promoted and the one staff member – chief executive, secretary, bottle-washer – operating out of a dodgy caravan at the top of the hill, made sure the message got out where it mattered. I might add that when Sharon Wessels was secretary, the message was very LOUD! No, I’m joking, but Sharon, Cheryl Peters, Lara Thomas, amongst others, all worked very hard at what they believed in.
Every year the caravan was swamped by holidaymakers, wanting to know what was going on over the holidays. They had just started pushing the theme of this being the Dolphin Coast. The one question that used to send them into hysterics was the earnest question, every year: “And what time exactly do the dolphins come past?”
As former chairman John Everett points out in his letter in this issue, the DCPA relied on a municipal grant to keep going. And eventually council decided that the body was too “white”. So it took over the day-to-day running of the association, which was the same as shooting it in the head.
Council was, essentially, critical that the DCPA was doing nothing to promote tourism that would directly benefit black entrepreneurs. It did not matter to council that there were few or no black-owned tourism enterprises anywhere in the region.
I am not for a moment knocking what Cheryl Peters is doing in her role of promoting tourism for the Ilembe district municipality. She is a very hard worker, but it is also true that she has to walk a politically-correct line.
There have been efforts by the chamber of commerce and others to take up the baton, but these have come to nought. Nobody is going to promote the Dolphin Coast like private enterprise. It’s always different when you’re working for your own pocket.
Many in tourism-related businesses, like B&B’s, moan about how little is done to promote their industry. It might be challenging, but Umhlanga has proved that it can be done with a vision and a preparedness by B&B and restaurant owners to join up.
Have a bed levy that is collected monthly through rates, force B&Bs, hotels and restaurants to be regularly inspected and graded in return for a star rating system, and refuse those establishments that won’t play by the rules permission to operate. If you think that is a bit heavy-handed, I can tell you that’s how countries like Kenya and Thailand got their tourism industries as strong as they are.
That will make the body financially viable and respected, and might have enough over to plough back into the chamber of commerce’s entrepreneur development programme.
The challenge is there – to breathe new life into the slogan “The Dolphin Coast – where the dolphins play!” Who is prepared to take it up?
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I dialled a number and got the following recording: “I am not available right now, but thank you for caring enough to call. I am making some changes in my life. Please leave a message after the beep. If I do not return your call, you are one of the changes.”