Proactive measures by municipality and business reap positive results
|Published
Cape Town - The Overstrand Municipality’s tourism sector is celebrating the revival of revenue in 2022 thanks to a successful summer season, that saw an influx of local and international tourists flocking in to enjoy the municipality’s vast array of attractions.
Thanking all role players and partnering stakeholders, Overstrand Mayor Annelie Rabie, said traffic count measured a high of 15 160 vehicles at the Kleinmond turn-off on the R43 arriving to the Overstrand on December 15, followed by 13 427 arriving on December 26.
"Traffic count was lowest on December 25 with 10 035 vehicles arriving. Kogelberg Nature Reserve had 57% more visitors during the month with 2 017 people as opposed to the 1 287 previously. The source market was mostly Northern Cape and Gauteng with a significant amount of new visitors. The Saturday and night markets recorded good sales and traders making record turnovers.
"At least 1 700 people visited the Danger Point Lighthouse during the 11 days it opened in December. This compares positively with the 2164 visitors received from April till end November 2022. Visitors came from all corners of South Africa, France, India, Canada, Namibia, Switzerland, Scotland, Australia and Germany. Harold Porter Nature Reserve received 7 150 visitors. This is a 12% increase on the previous year," said Rabie.
She said international visitor numbers are increasing, and tourism seems to be regaining traction after the negative effects of the Covid-19 pandemic endured during the previous two years.
In a statement, Municipal Manager Dean O’Neill, said Overstrand Tourism used digital platforms to share travel information about the region to inspire travellers to visit, and residents to explore.
"This helps to reach general objectives of bringing more people to the region, encouraging visitors to stay longer and explore more. Besides keeping the websites current, social media marketing is used in a creative way to combat limited marketing budgets through visually showcasing the destination.
Mike Bayer from The Hermanus Country Market, which comprises 100 micro enterprises, said they had the best season in many years, thanks to their proactive investments on three generators to beat load shedding.
"For the first time in the history of the market, craft traders were our top performers. These traders with load shedding worked themselves to the bone trying to keep up and many have taken a break over the last few weekends to recover. These had little, or no stock left after the season which is an indication of the success of the market and the season.
"We wish to thank our community for their incredible support of this endeavour and invite anyone who hasn’t been to our market to come and experience this market as it isn’t only fun or funky. We have three permanent entrepreneurial stalls allocated to very young traders aged between 18 and 25," Bayer said.