Greed endangering tourism in the Cape
Ashley Smith
November 16 2005 at 12:09PM
As the city gears up for a bumper summer holiday season, international tour operators have warned tourism MEC Lynne Brown that Cape Town is over-priced.
She met operators attending the World Travel Market in London, a showcase for the international tourism industry. They said they were concerned about over-pricing in the Western Cape in general, and Cape Town in particular.
Among those who voiced concerns at the World Travel Market were Virgin Holidays, owned by the Virgin Group, headed by Richard Branson.
But Nils Heckscher of the Federated Hotel Association of Southern Africa disagreed.
'Cape Town is no longer considered a cheap destination'
"Although Cape Town is no longer considered a cheap destination, it offers excellent value for money."
He said the issue of overpricing was like Christmas - "it comes around once a year". The perception was often a result of just a couple of incidents.
Brown spoke to the Cape Argus on Tuesday from the travel market, which ends on Thursday.
She said she would be talking to participants in the local tourism industry upon her return about a litany of complaints raised about over-pricing, specifically at restaurants and hotels.
She is also set to launch a tourism consumer protector to investigate complaints of poor service and over-pricing.
'We must not make tourists feel that they are being capitalised on'
Brown said tour operators who visited the Western Cape stand at the travel market had included small and large concerns, airlines and other industry players, who had all complained about prices at restaurants and hotels, which were "very, very high and getting higher".
She said: "They say it is greed in the industry."
Some operators had confirmed they were taking their business to other African destinations, such as Kenya.
Although the government could not regulate pricing, her department would impress on local operators that they would cause "long-term harm" to the province and the country.
She said with the strengthening of the rand against international currencies, the province had to find ways "not to kill off the goose that lays the golden egg".
Nearly 200 countries are taking part in the World Travel Market and Brown said deals worth about R400-billion had been concluded at last year's event.
Cape Town Routes Unlimited, the Western Cape's destination marketing body, has a display to showcase the best of the region to visitors to the travel market.
The Western Cape boasts eight of the top 10 South African tourist attractions as voted by visitors.
Brown said she had realised while networking at the market that Cape Town and South Africa in general had a relatively small share of the world's tourism, and that the local industry had to work hard to retain and increase its market share.
Asked to comment about the so-called dual system, where tourists and locals are charged different rates in Cape Town, Brown warned that "we must not make tourists feel that they are being capitalised on".
Brown's spokesperson, Thabo Mabaso, said a common thread in meetings with large tour operators, including Virgin Holidays, as well as with British tourism writers, was that "up until 2003 the tourism volumes to SA and the Western Cape in particular were growing phenomenally".
As a result, local operators had upped prices and this could now have a negative effect on tourism countrywide.
Tourism accounts for 9,8 percent of the Western Cape's gross regional product and employs 9,6 percent of the provincial workforce.
Total spending by tourists during 2004 was R21,4-billion, up from R17,3-billion in 2002.
Heckscher said Fedhasa had been talking to Cape Town Routes Unlimited about "a tourism barometer" to assess how Cape Town and Western Cape prices compared with those of other international destinations.
Cases of apparent overpricing often turned out, after investigation, to be good value for money.
