At Indaba 2010, I spoke about a couple of seemingly different topics; first how to make the most of opportunities associated with the World Cup and secondly on how to survive the tough times. For me, there is a common solution – and that solution is sustainable tourism in the broader sense. Below is a transcript of my Indaba speech.
The World Cup
A lot has been said about the disappointing bookings for the World Cup. But perhaps too much has been pinned on a six week sporting event. Too many people jumped on the gravy train hoping for a fast buck, with fly by night operations charging triple or even quadruple regular rates and airlines creating insurmountable barriers to entry. The result has been that in a tough economic climate, potential visitors have been dissuaded from coming out for the World Cup. The World Cup takes place in the traditional low season for South Africa, so we should be thrilled simply to be getting increased winter trade. Rather charge normal rates and have visitors leave thinking what great value for money they have had eager to spread the word and return as soon as possible.
Perhaps we lost sight of the essence of the World Cup.
The essence of the World Cup is for South Africans to celebrate not only football, but also this magnificent country. It’s a carnival, a celebration, something to be enjoyed – an unparalleled opportunity to promote South Africa – not a one stop gravy train.
The worst case scenario would be for visitors to leave Oliver Thambo or King Shaka feeling they’ve been ripped off.
Sustainable Tourism
I wrote recently about Sustainable Tourism in Africa on the Rhino Africa blog. The World Cup is the ideal opportunity to implement a sustainable future for South African tourism and this is critical for the protection of the industry from which everyone here this weekend makes a living.
Sustainable tourism is not just about being green – it’s about ensuring a long term future for South African tourism based on partnership and community benefit. Unifying as an industry so that we can reap the rewards in years to come rather than decimate our natural resources and habitats for short term gain.
So when I say sustainable tourism, I am referring to South Africa’s reputation and longevity as a tourist destination. We have an opportunity to grow the tourism industry in South Africa which currently accounts for little more than 2 percent of GDP. There is massive potential for growth and an opportunity to position ourselves as THE travel destination for not only North America and Europe but also South America, Asia and Australasia.
As a nation, we are undoubtedly behind the curve in terms of environmentally sustainable tourism, but that is changing with a collective realisation that our spectacular habitats and our abundant flora and fauna are our most precious resources.
Sustainable tourism requires complete buy-in from government and communities, but unfortunately in the travel industry, little has changed since Nelson Mandela took charge in 1994. Identifying hotels and lodges that are Black Economic Empowerment compliant is almost impossible and this goes some way to explaining why it is so difficult to preach the gospel of protecting and expanding our natural resources when there is no buy-in from local government and the private sector.
Tourism certainly offers employment, but unless the communities have ownership and tourism pays its way, there is no incentive for these marginal communities to support or protect it. Try explaining to a hungry local subsistence farmer and his family why they shouldn’t kill and eat game that has co-existed in that area for millennia, when existing tourism resources deliver no direct return to him or his family.
The beauty of the tourism industry is that it offers employment opportunities which are not necessarily highly skilled. Skill development is relatively easy and inexpensive.
Tourists to South Africa do not have to feel guilty about leaving a dirty carbon footprint if we as an industry can facilitate sustainable tourism which empowers and uplifts local communities. Instead the legacy of tourists can have meaning.
The utopia we should strive for is one where tourism stakeholders get involved in transformational projects and use their hospitality skills and knowledge to uplift their own staff and communities into product ownership.
Many of you here today are engaging in fantastic projects which do just that and I have been privileged to see some truly great examples of this such as Thakadu River Lodge in Madikwe Game Reserve. It’s a lodge built, owned and operated by the local community – but instead of just handing it over and setting them up for failure the surrounding lodges spent three years investing time, energy, skill and intellectual capital into the project to allow the community to attain a sustainable level of competence and to facilitate a genuine understanding of the importance of service delivery.
Another example of a truly sustainable eco-tourism operator is Wilderness Safaris who partner with communities that own and protect the land. Wilderness then continue to uplift the area by training and employing local community members. This is why my own company, Rhino Africa, as well as creating our own initiatives, is a big supporter of the Wilderness Safaris brand. Wherever possible we support companies that involve and empower local charities and community programmes in the interests of self-sufficiency. For us it is of paramount importance that tourism companies invest in the local community instead of bringing in hired help from elsewhere.
While we believe in supporting the initiatives of our partner companies, Rhino Africa has also started our own initiative, Challenge4aCause which is essentially a community-based conservation project. While it aims to support the conservation of Africa’s endangered animal and plant species, Challenge4aCause will also finance projects that seek to uplift poor communities.
We do this by running an Annual Challenge with all proceeds going to a pre-selected worthy cause. Last year our more intrepid members of the team cycled 330km across the Damaraland desert in Namibia to raise $300,000 for the Save the Rhino Trust. If every establishment represented here today at Indaba could take on one sustainability project each year, the effect would be considerable.
Opportunities
So if we take sustainable tourism as our goal, then I believe we can consider the opportunities offered by the World Cup differently.
We can broaden the list of top South African destinations so that visitors don’t just come to Cape Town and the Kruger but so that they come back to South Africa again and again to spend time in the Karoo and the awesome Cederberg, so that they return for warm winter sun in Durban and an enchanting meander through the Midlands. How about the Golden Gate National Park or the Underberg or perhaps the unspoilt splendour of the Eastern Cape? Namaqualand, the West Coast or the spine tingling battlefields of KZN – the list is endless.
With stadiums scattered country wide, this is a real opportunity for areas other than the Western Cape to make their mark with international visitors.
According to ‘Statistics South Africa’, the leading country for overseas tourists visiting South Africa in 2009 was the UK followed by the USA, Germany, Holland, France, Australia, India and finally Italy to complete the top eight.
If we look more closely though, the number of visitors from the USA is actually about half that of the UK. When you consider that the population of the USA is over 300 million compared to about 61 million in the UK, we begin to see the opportunity the World Cup presents to promote South Africa in the United States. Ticket sales to Americans were at about 120,000 when I last checked. If every one of those tourists goes back to the US a happy chappy with a couple of hotel, restaurant or tour operator recommendations, just think of the word of mouth potential…
32 Nations are about to descend on South Africa and including the likes of countries not on that Top 8 list, such as Spain, Denmark, Switzerland, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, New Zealand and Japan. What a fantastic opportunity to secure a new and steady stream of tourists to South Africa for the next decade or so.
An opportunity to promote South Africa to non-English speaking nations. As an industry we need to diversify into multiple languages. And this cannot be half-hearted, that is why at Rhino Africa, we have launched an entire German division, with a German website and German speaking consultants.
The Tough Times
So how do we survive the tough times? Well if you’ve survived so far and still have the budget to come to Indaba, then I’m probably already preaching to the survivors!
All industries have suffered over the last couple of years and I think it is safe to say that we are not out of the woods yet. The World Cup has come at a great time for South Africa, but what happens when those six weeks are over? Our focus has to be long term.
This is a time to stick to your core strategy – really focus on what you’re good at. This is not a time to change strategies or experiment. If your business is not running at capacity, maximise the down time – educate yourself – take the time to learn about sustainable tourism and learn how to implement environmentally friendly practices.
There are no magic solutions on how to survive these tough times, but if you have a sound business model and can cut down overheads and waste, there is no reason why you cannot find opportunities among the gloom. Even in a recession, the old business maxim ‘you have to speculate to accumulate’ remains true. Just as long as you stay true to your core strategy.
One of my favourite expressions has been to ‘lunch through the crunch’ – now that’s not to say drink your troubles and profits away, but rather use the opportunity to network and cement your business relationships with an eye on positioning yourself for when the market turns. What better time to find community partners and begin sustainability projects.
Sentiment and speculation play a part in any recession. Sure we have taken a hit here in South Africa, there’s no denying that, but in this industry with its potential for growth and in this magnificent country with a World Cup just weeks away, we are uniquely positioned to prosper. What we need to ensure is that we prosper for the long term and not just the coming months.
This is a great time to remember the old World War II slogan that so neatly epitomised British resolve – Keep Calm and Carry On.
We live in a fantastic country with an admittedly chequered past. The World Cup is not going to make or break Sout
h Africa, but it is certainly an opportunity to win over the hearts and minds of the world, to show just how far we have come in the last sixteen years and to create a new reputation.
Unfortunately it is hard to change some hearts and minds about South Africa, foreign media is often cruel and one sided, but this is our opportunity. Let’s exceed our visitor’s expectations by offering top quality service, great value for money and the warmest hospitality.
Let’s show the world and the nay sayers in particular that although we face problems in South Africa, we have the attitude and the capabilities to overcome those problems and prosper. Let’s make foreign investors wonder why they didn’t get involved sooner. Let’s show everyone that our hotels and guest houses are not only some of the finest in the world, but are safe, that our streets are clean, our infrastructure reliable, our transport systems efficient and that we are no longer a developing nation – we have arrived.
The wait is nearly over, this is an exciting time to be South African, so fly the flag proudly and consider the World Cup an opportunity to make friends, to network and to showcase your wares. The success of this great country is inevitable if we all play our part in ensuring a sustainable future for South African Tourism. Thank you for listening.
