Get professionals with passion and drive

It is with interest that I read recent articles in the Courier about a new tourism effort on the North Coast.
Whilst I absolutely appreciate and applaud any such initiatives, I also read it with a great degree of skepticism. I am not happy to admit that.
I am a marketer. Even if I am shortly moving out of Ballito, I feel compelled to comment.
I have lived in Ballito for 13 years and in that time, we have had several tourism bodies. They have all been spectacularly unsuccessful. Why?
It also goes wider. KZN in itself has never achieved any serious inroads, although there are anecdotal successes – even annual events like the July have seen declining numbers. Even the ICC, an icon of success for the province at some point, seems to now attract less prestigious events than the Cape Town ICC.
Whilst we claim high seasonal tourism, there are simple explanations for it – our proximity to Gauteng, KZN being a large province in numbers itself, us being less expensive than the Cape and us having good weather all year round. We are also close to amazing facilities like St Lucia and game parks.
The issue is not what we have today, but how we can treble that in years to come. Are we growing our market share of tourism in SA or are we simply maintaining?
This is whilst many towns in the Cape Province and even Gauteng have shown growth in their tourism figures. Many of them with fewer resources and tourism properties than us. Some of them far from major airports and large population numbers.
We have great beaches, great weather, serious museums like the Luthuli Museum, nice restaurants, good shops, good accommodation and a fairly safe environment. We have far more to sell than many towns that do better than us.
So why are we not doing it?
There is also a mistaken belief that Ballito will massively benefit from the airport. Whilst there are clearly benefits to be had from the airport – even if we do nothing at all to grow it, Umhlanga seems to benefit even more. They are equally close to the airport and have more extensive facilities. As the law of averages in marketing goes, Umhlanga also has to do less to benefit more.
If we are indeed serious, it is time that we appoint serious professionals in these tourism positions – poach them and pay them, regardless of their political or other connections. Give them stretch targets and create a performance culture. They need to have passion, drive and a sense of urgency.
Then we, as a community, must also support them. Give them the space and support they need, but then hold them to the commitments they make.
So I will watch with keen interest from the sideline – and I challenge the new entity to prove me wrong. I will be very happy to see that happen.
Cannes, in the south of France, is a rather unspectacular town as far as natural environment goes – there are far prettier towns in that area. Yet they had a visionary mayor many years ago who realised that – and then created a series of festivals to attract high income supporters. Today this unspectacular town has made itself the most successful town in the south of France. Business and facilities boomed and today they are almost isolated from any decline in the French economy.
We need this kind of vision for Ballito to set everyone alight – and get business to create even better facilities.
Let us challenge the new team to do that.

THOMAS OOSTHUIZEN
Ballito