Knysna Tourism officially closes its doors

Source: Tourism Update, 01/09/2018

Knysna Tourism has taken the decision to close its offices, as Wesgro
takes over the tourism promotion and destination marketing of the
region, commencing November 1.
Knysna Tourism’s Board of Directors have decided to close its offices
with immediate effect, following Wesgro’s meeting with Knysna
Municipality on Wednesday, where it was agreed in principle that the
Agency would take over the constitutional mandate for tourism
promotion and destination marketing of the region, from November 1.
The agreement follows a series of engagements with Knysna Municipality
and the Department of Economic Development and Tourism, who initially
requested Wesgro to assist with the delivery the mandate.
A non-negotiable condition from Wesgro in responding to this request
from the Municipality is that the service is to be delivered with the
support of the tourism industry of Knysna. The Agency has urged the
existing Knysna Tourism Board to formally align with the Knysna
Accommodation Association so that a fully representative industry
advisory board can be constituted.
It is Wesgro’s intention that the relationship with this board will be
governed by an MoU that will be signed between Wesgro and the
industry, parallel with the Service Level Agreement (SLA) the agency
would sign with the municipality. Both documents are currently being
finalised.
Knysna Tourism was registered as a non-profit company, and began as
the Knysna Publicity Association, founded during a public meeting on
May 9, 1927. More recently, it evolved into a destination marketing
organisation which received the bulk of its funding from the Council
of the Knysna Municipality, which in turn assigned the company with
the task of fulfilling its (the Municipality) constitutional
requirement to promote tourism to the region.
According to Knysna Tourism Chairperson, Elmay Bouwer, the SLA between
the Municipality and Knysna Tourism ended on June 30, and with no
further funding committed for Knysna Tourism to continue operating,
the acting Municipal Manager at the time requested that Knysna Tourism
NPC become a service provider to the Municipality. This was to enable
the Municipality to give interim funds to Knysna Tourism for the
period until Wesgro takes over the tourism function on November 1,
when the SLA between the Municipality and Wesgro will commence.
“On August 1, as requested, Knysna Tourism submitted a budget for
operating costs to the Municipality, and kept the offices running in
good faith, but no funding has been received to date. Yesterday, the
Knysna Tourism Board made the decision that it was not acting
responsibly by operating without the guarantee of any funding from the
Municipality,” added Bouwer.
Numerous negotiations took place between the Municipality and the
Board of Knysna Tourism regarding interim funding of the Knysna
Tourism offices while a solution was being sought. Owing to broken
undertakings by the Municipality, the Board, however, believes that
the Municipality has negotiated in bad faith.
Despite recent additional financial contributions from members, Knysna
Tourism is no longer able to fund continuing operations. The company’s
directors have a duty in terms of the Companies Act 2008, to avoid
trading in contravention of the Act. The Board therefore feels that it
has no option but to order the doors of the tourism body to officially
close.
According to Bouwer, the Municipality has now taken over the
responsibility of running the Knysna Tourism offices themselves until
November 1, and there will be a full handover by the Knysna Tourism board.
Wesgro CEO, Tim Harris commented: “We intend on signing a three year
contract with the municipality in the upcoming weeks. We will aim to
start delivering against this contract from November 1 �` as per our
mandate set out in the Wesgro Act. This will be similar to the
tourism, trade and investment contracts we deliver against for
municipalities like the City of Cape Town, Drakenstein and Saldanha Bay.”
The local tourism promotion work for Knysna and Sedgefield will be
delivered on the ground from Knysna by a reconstituted team of staff.
The intention is for the team to be led by an existing senior Wesgro
staff member, who will relocate from Cape Town to Knysna to take up
this designation.
Once the contracts are signed, the first order of business on November
1 will be to ensure the tourism office at 40 Main Road is open and
ready to sell the destination as part of a renewed effort by the
tourism industry, the municipality and Wesgro to promote Knysna as a
destination and all its offerings.
“We believe we will be able to introduce a pilot initiative in the
town from the beginning of November, subject to the finalisation of a
contract with the municipality,” said Judy Lain, Wesgro’s Chief
Marketing Officer for Tourism. “This contract will in no way affect
delivery of our existing long-standing mandate to promote Western Cape
tourism and, with it, every region, town and attraction across the
province.”
James Vos, MP and Shadow Minister of Tourism for the DA, told Tourism
Update that Wesgro had a very comprehensive marketing network, and
could certainly contribute to Knysna from a strategic destination
marketing enhancement point of view.
“Effective destination marketing and ensuring that tourism offerings
are market ready are key considerations for any successful tourism
growth strategy. Undoubtedly, Wesgro`s track record and outstanding
performance to market the province and certain locations as
destinations of choice for various purposes provide massive
advantages. It is important that the existing tourism network in
Knysna forms part of the strategy going forward to market Knysna for
both leisure and business tourism opportunities. I believe that Knysna
has incredible tourism potential to advance business trading, and
achieve market exposure of services and products,” added Vos.
In closing, Bouwer said: “The board is excited about working with
Wesgro to market Knysna as a destination, and we are looking forward
to capitalising on their expertise and knowledge of the industry as
well as their international contacts