THANK you to all those financially stressed parents and grandparents out there who bring so many tourists to the South Coast to spend oodles of boodle in local restaurants and shops.
Unlike the hotels, holiday clubs, resorts, caravan parks, restaurants, bars, nightclubs, etc., who profit handsomely from the holiday ‘seasons’, long weekends and special events like Africa Bike Week, ‘daddy-and-mommy-who-live-by-the-sea’ (myself included) get very little out of the deal. In fact, they pay!
They provide free accommodation, food (cooked and served), copious quantities of booze, baby-sitters on demand and, ‘what the heck… why don’t you use my car as well?’
(Just in case my own kids read this, I’m only joking. We love having you all, although you could offer to help wash the dishes from time to time.)
Tourism CEO Justin Mackrory and I were speaking about this quite recently while having a neck massage at the newly refurbished Selborne Hotel (strange, but true). He estimates ‘family’ tourists contribute more than 60 percent to the South Coast holiday numbers.
Because board and lodging is free, these tourists will certainly have more ‘disposable income’ than the traditional Venter trailer brigade, so they will be more inclined to order the expensive bottles of vino.
What really irks, though, is that local ‘moms and pops’ never seem to get any credit for bringing this business to the coast. It is just taken for granted and those who actually get paid to attract the tourists – the tourism bodies and event organisers – get all the kudos.
Even worse, based on personal experiences at a good few local restaurants this past weekend, ‘moms and pops’ offer a far better service. No names, no pack drill, but we had to wait an hour-and-a-half for plain old steak and chips at one establishment in Umtentweni this past weekend.
The excuse from the manager: “Sorry, we had an outside catering order to get through first.”
Three toasted cheese and tomato sandwiches at a kiosk in Southbroom took 30 minutes… and we were the only customers! They were so sloppy and unappetising that we tossed them into a bin.
Chicken nuggets ordered from a kiddies’ menu at a hardly busy restaurant in Margate were raw. They were sent back and returned as is, but re-fried… even the raw, half nugget that a 15-month-old had already taken a bite out of.
The point of this rant is that Tourism, event organisers and ‘moms and pops’ create the ‘promise’ (in marketing terms) of a good holiday, but many businesses who directly benefit do not follow through.
It’s all very well blaming municipalities for potholes, broken toilets, etc., but what do you, Mr Restaurateur, Mr Shopkeeper, do to really make a tourist’s day?
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