Having visited many tourism offices around SA, one can’t help wondering, “Are they just info offices, or do they actively market to a far wider audience?”  Do they match the expectations of paying members?  Do they give a return on local government funding or is that just a feel-good grant?

So we asked Alan Winde, the Western Cape’s MEC for Finance & Tourism: “Should Local Tourism Ofiices (LTOs) receive municipal funding without proper, annual business & marketing plans?”

His answer was “No, they must be able to show plans and report after the year end. It’s public money.”

How many LTOs and municipalities comply with this fully?  You may find rudimentary plans submitted, but are they worth the paper they are written on?  And how many submit the required annual reports that show what was achieved?  It’s not just about accounting for money spent, but showing that it was effectively spent and that it did produce returns, measured year-against-year.

Now the real problem lies with the municipalities who provide the annual grants.  Are they failing in their duty?  Are they competent to assess business and marketing plans, and do they demand the annual reports showing what was achieved?

Maybe provincial authorities like Wesgro (for the Western Cape) or independent assessment organisations need to be tasked with endorsing plans and reports – because most municipalities don’t have the expertise.  And this could provide the opportunity to raise the bar in destination marketing everywhere.

The question:  Do you think your local tourism office meets these requirements & your expectations?  (Do they share their annual business & marketing plans, and annual reports, with you?)

Please vote in our poll and you can also add further comments below:

jVoteSystem developed and designed by www.joomess.de.

So why – in South Africa – do we make such a big deal of region and route marketing, often with names which are unknown brands?  Is it because our destination marketing is dominated by local government politicians and bureaucrats?  And they don’t appreciate the fundamental imperative of all marketing: “It’s not what you want to say, it’s what your customer wants to hear.”

There are examples of strong route and regional brands, but none of them were created by bureaucrats.  For example, the Stellenbosch Wine Route – where a group of product owners banded together to reinforce their offering… using and enhancing the strong Stellenbosch brand.  And there’s the Garden Route, Swartberg and Waterberg, but those have existed as brands long before any destination marketing came into play.

Cities, towns and villages are the ultimate (and very competitive) brands.  Anything that dilutes these as brands damages destination marketing.

As an example, take the relatively new Whale Coast Route being marketed by Overstrand Municipality.  Wouldn’t they get more bang for their buck by rather boosting their already-recognised brands?  What’s it going to cost to elevate Whale Coast Route to the same level of regional, national and global recognition as Hermanus and Gansbaai?  The bottom line is… Overstrand can’t afford it.

To make matters worse, most visitors to this area visit when there isn’t a whale in sight!  Is this a brand promise that can’t be met for most visitors?

As municipalities around South Africa try to up their role in destination marketing, the nonsense grows worse.  Municipalities usually embrace several towns and, because each doesn’t want the other to have dominance, new and meaningless brands are being created.  Does the West Coast Peninsula mean anything to you?  (I bet Paternoster, Langebaan and Saldanha do!)  This epitomises bureaucrats’ need for political solutions, aligned to political structures, rather than marketing solutions.

In Gauteng it’s particularly confusing since many accommodation establishments in Ekuhuleni (East Rand) still claim to be part of Johannesburg.  And in the Eastern Cape, Port Elizabeth and East London mean much more than Nelson Mandela Bay and Buffalo City.

Please vote in the poll below.

jVoteSystem developed and designed by www.joomess.de.

She will, however, continue working on tourism and marketing strategy initiatives, nationally and internationally, as an independent tourism and marketing strategist.

She was appointed CEO of the new Cape Town Tourism in 2004 and had the difficult job of bringing the various tourism bodies together when several local authorities were amalgamated into the new City of Cape Town.

Few will argue the point that she led CTT to become the best destination marketing organisation in South Africa.

CapeInfo appreciates the relationship we’ve always had with her, and we’re sure this will continue as she starts on her new chapter.

But here’s the important lesson, told to me many years ago by the late Don Titmas, just after he opened the first fine-dining restaurant at the V&A Waterfront:

“The hospitality industry is a perishable industry.

“If you don’t sell bodies into beds and bottoms onto restaurant seats today, you can’t catch up tomorrow or ever after.  They are lost for good!”

Have you seen the advert below?  What do you think it will achieve?

I think Langeberg Municipality will just get another under-performing, over-paid bureaucrat.  Another person to attend interminable meetings, to demonstrate their importance while the real outputs are little more than hot air and obfuscation.

That R215,000 (plus benefits and overheads) for a Tourism Officer would be better spent in the towns’ tourism offices.

We don’t have the skills in SA to place people like these in all municipalities, and we don’t have competence in municipalities’ management — they don’t know what to expect or to demand.  Just look how poorly written those job descriptions are.  Can people grow into jobs?  Only if they have great mentors, which these people won’t have.  Should people be highly paid while growing into their jobs?  Only if you treat tax and rate-payers as cash cows!

I’m looking forward to seeing you on October 9 and hearing about the Economic Development Partnership’s action plans, because a complete overhaul of tourism and economic development functions is an urgency.  My experience of tourism and LED municipal officials is horrendous.

The Municipality serves the towns Ashton, Robertson, Montagu, Bonnievale and McGregor in the picturesque Breede River Valley/Klein Karoo area, where people still live close to nature.  Applications are hereby invited from persons with the necessary qualifications and experience for appointment in the following position:

Tourism Officer

Qualifications/ Experience:
Std 10/ Grade 12 and appropriate 3 year National Diploma or Degree in Tourism; Valid Code EB driver’s license; Computer literate; 5 years appropriate experience; Should be able to communicate (verbal and written) in both English or Afrikaans – additional languages will be an advantage; Should be prepared to work after normal office hours

Key Performance Areas:
Render the tourism function in the Langeberg area; Gathering and processing of tourism statistics; Attendance of Local, District and Provincial Tourism meetings; Marketing of the Langeberg area as a preferred tourist destination by arranging media educational tours and tour operator information sessions; Design, printing and distribution of marketing material; Attendance of Indabas, Expos’s and Festivals to market the Langeberg area; Arrange training programmes for persons employed in the tourism sector and execute schools tourism awareness programmes; Product development in the previously disadvantaged areas; Doing of general administration

Remuneration:
R 165 324 – R 214 608 per annum and normal benefits as applicable to a Local Authority.

Local Economic Development Officer (LED) – Contract position

Qualifications/ Experience:
Std 10/ Grade 12 plus 3 year tertiary qualification in economical development; 4 years relevant experience in an economic development environment; Code EB driver’s license; Computer literate

Key Performance Areas:
Planning and prioritize the economic development activities; Facilitate and manage the investment facilitation programme; Contract and manage key Economic Development projects; Networking with National and Provincial Government Departments; Execute research on best practices and interact with other public sector institutions; Facilitate and manage key tourism related projects.

Remuneration:
R 219 744 – R 285 240 per annum and normal benefits as applicable to a Local Authority.

Closing date: 8 October 2012.  Application / CV (Copy of ID and driver’s license where applicable) with covering letter must be submitted to the Municipal Manager at Postal Address:  Private Bag X2, Ashton, 6715; E-mail:  This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. ; Fax:  (023) 615 1563.  Further information is available from the Manager:  Human Resources at Tel (023) 615 8035 during normal office hours.

So off I went to the bank.  I couldn’t remember the best way to deposit it so I asked one of the relationship managers, who was standing idly by, if I should use the ATM. “The tellers,” he said.

So off I went and stood in the “Express queue. It didn’t move. So I played chess on my BlackBerry and posted a story on Facebook.  It still didn’t move so I tweeted Michael Jordaan, FNB’s CEO.  I put the tardiness down to the fact that this is Limpopo, where very little works the way it should.  (Halfway through the year, pupils still haven’t received school books.  Hospitals can’t carry out their duties because they don’t have medicines, or latex gloves!)

I was impressed by the subject matter on TV — not the usual rubbish but a behind-scenes-story about a FNB lighting installation for the Joburg Art Fair recently.

Queueing brought on a brainwave for how municipalities can make extra cash — by charging banks rental for pavement space when their queues snake many metres into the public domain.  That’s a regular occurrence at the local Nedbank.

Blacks and whites don’t talk to each other in queues in Limpopo.  But I’m not a local so I do.  I started asking my neighbours how they put up with such service. The sign said “Express queue” after all.

I was getting choruses of agreement and people in the queue were starting to smile for the first time… I was ready to start a consumer revolution… but then Michael tweeted back: “Sorry, use the ATM.”

On the way to the ATM I bumped into Hannetjie Craven, the branch manager, who asked if everything was okay. I told her of my experience and wanted to show her Michael’s advice, but she didn’t want to look at it… she wanted to kill the relationship manager — Using tellers is not only slower, but costs the customer an extra R14.00!

She ushered me into the ATM mall where there was a queue of one and asked the supervisor to help me. Now the “Chief of ATMs” (my phrase) is a real Mama.  She helps people with no tech-savvy at all handle their banking chores all day… and she does it with aplomb and speed.  What a star!  If anyone lives the motto “How can we help you?” she does.  Thank you Ouma Ngosana!

Ouma Kgosana, chief of the ATMs and the real helpful face of the bank. Take a bow, Ouma!

So what’s the lesson from all of this?

So-called “relationship managers” are my bête noire — a total oxymoron and disservice to banking.  Most are poorly informed and over-reliant on process and technology… but that’s the way banks have gone, without using common-sense along the way.  Bring back the old Bank Manager who had wide-ranging discretionary powers, and who did have a relationship — one way or the other — with his or her customers.

I’ll never forget joining the partners of an architectural practice, Munnik, Visser, Black & Fish, for tea many years ago.  It was the first time I’d met Arthur Black, who managed the practice’s administration.   He spoke about his meeting with their new bank manager and explained his approach — which briefly involved the manager coming to him, to explain how the bank would service their needs.  After all, the customer rules…

There are stars… like Hannetjie Craven and the ‘Mama of ATMs’.  Some months ago, relationship managers spent two months trying to rectify a bank problem with my account.  When I reached the end of my tether, I spoke to Hannetjie and she sorted it out within a couple of hours.

So why bother with relationship managers?  If you’re in banking management, go figure… you’re wasting resources and pissing customers off.

Yes, this experience was at FNB, but they are streets ahead of other SA banks.  I like them and they do try to do better.  By contrast, Absa is a master of cover-up and denying responsibility.  You can read about that here.

In Johannesburg — the country’s largest city and the main gateway to South Africa — we see the Johannesburg Tourism Company (JTC) being disbanded and incorporated into the municipality, with an apparent scant regard for the industry’s interests.

I asked them some questions:

When will restructuring be completed?
“The process of integrating the JTC into the City of Johannesburg has begun and should be completed by the end of the financial year in June.”

What benefits does this restructuring offer?
“To ensure that the City of Johannesburg reaches its goal of a being a world class African city, the City announced that it is undergoing an Institutional Review Process (IRP).

“The IRP aims to align the activities of the city to the Growth and Development Strategy (GDS) – Joburg 2040 – which will result in an effective and modern system that will strengthen accountability, oversight, transparency and corporate governance.

“Changes to the institutional arrangements are prompted by the City’s quest to continually enhance service delivery; overall governance; and to respond to emerging needs of its communities. In recent times, some areas of duplication, span of control, clarity of lines of accountability, opportunities for economies of scale, efficiency and effectiveness have been identified, and needed to be addressed.”

Now that sounds like a load of bureaucratic hogwash to me!

Will Johannesburg’s tourism authority be more or will it be less accountable to the industry it serves; will it’s ties to the B&Bs and everybody else be closer or even more hidden in the bureaucratic maze of reports and processes?

Will they understand their customers — the tourists — better or are tourists the last thing on their minds, other than as statistics which they’ve played little role in growing?

I’ve been to the JTC offices several times and it gave the impression of a very elegant morgue.  Was it buzzing with tourists (…supposedly their bread and butter)?  No, I never saw a single tourist and the receptionist cast a lonely and bored sight.

Will tourism in Johannesburg be led by political agendas rather than the bottom line that sees everybody prosper?

In 2009, JTC hosted the Miss World pageant at a reported cost of R90 million.  What sort of return on the investment have they seen, or is this sort of detail unimportant in their, and the city’s, scheme of things?

At the tourism Indaba in Durban last year, Johannesurg, Durban and Cape Town announced that they would be working together on joint city marketing — urban tourism is the growth sector!  Since then, Johannesburg has pulled out.  Durban & Cape Town are going ahead with a joint campaign through National Geographic.

JTC’s response:  “The campaign with National Geographic will be relooked in the future following the full integration of the JTC into the City in light of the bigger City marketing and promotional strategies.

“The JTC has a multi pronged marketing and promotional strategy. Therefore, its non participation in the National Geographic initiative would not negatively impact tourism in the city.”

Is that convincing?  It sounds like more hogwash to me.

None of the tourism stakeholders I spoke to had any praise for JTC.  Not one!  None had any faith that the City of Johannesburg will do any better.  JTC was, after all, their creation with a board of directors they appointed.

Destination marketing requires shared ownership and participation by public & private sectors, and communities.

Yet Johannesburg has such potential as a tourist city which JTC has never capitalised upon… because it would have meant sharing or handing over control?  Johannesburg’s strength lies in the character of the different suburbs — effective destination marketing will only happen when there are effective public/private partnerships at regional levels.

Looking at the City of Johannesburg’s website, it’s impossible to find out which member of the executive committee is responsible for tourism.  It’s as though it doesn’t exist.

A search does show an undated, unattributed Tourism Strategy document.  It’s certainly no action plan for Johannesburg and could have been written by someone in Berlin or Bangkok!  Is this municipality a competent custodian of tourism?

Johannesburg needs a strong and independent destination marketing agency.

One wonders where representative bodies like Fedhasa and SATSA stand in all of this.  This is happening on their watch and they seem to be asleep, and certainly not representing the interests of their members.  (If municipal & provincial changes are a never-ending yawn, sometimes it is the private sector’s job to force the issue.  As Simon Anholt said, the only remaining superpower is public opinion.)  But please do comment and tell us if we’re wrong.

There’s also a poll to see what you think… please click here to vote!

It’s astounding
Time is fleeting
Madness takes its toll…

I’ve been somewhat underwhelmed by the announcements about the closure of Cape Town Routes Unlimited (CTRU) — the Western Cape’s provincial tourism authority — and its incorporation into Wesgro — the provincial trade and investment promotion agency.

CTRU’s last media release on March 30 was a statement by Alan Winde, the provincial tourism minister, that he and the boards of CTRU and Wesgro had decided to incorporate trade, investment and tourism marketing under one roof from April 1.

On April 8, Wesgro issued a media release stating that this “would now be done by a single, ramped up executing agency to increase the province’s national and global competitiveness as a business and leisure destination.”

Why the italics?  Someone has yet to demonstrate how the agency has been “ramped up.”

The decision to disband CTRU is the correct one.  It was a fatally flawed structure from day one in 2003.  It became worse as time went by, and this was illustrated in our 2007 interview with Lynne Brown — then the Western Cape’s tourism minister.

A year before this interview, CTRU’s chairperson had agreed that the organisation’s corporate culture was wholly unsuited to a marketing organisation.  But it was all hunky-dory for Brown, a former schoolteacher, and her CTRU CEO, also a former schoolteacher.  Yet the interfence in the daily running of CTRU by the minister and her tourism department saw a chairperson and board director resign prematurely at various times.

In his comments on the Brown interview, Hugh von Zahn, a prominent businessman, wrote:

“I once wrote an essay on Napoleon the Third called ”A Tragedy of Good Intentions” which is apt when it comes to the organization of tourism marketing and development in our province.

“The real tragedy is that we have been traversing this ground in the same fashion for years, all to no avail.

“In order to understand why this type of failure happens in an organization like the CTRU you have to look at what is called “process” and how it impacts on service delivery. In the strange new world of contemporary SA we have elevated process to the level of a mantra, all to the exclusion of results.

“In the business world you focus on outcomes and results and decide on the shortest path to get there. This is standard business practice. In the weird world of the bureaucracy you follow a process, often to the exclusion of results. As long as you can show that you are following a process all will be well, the results are incidental.

“The real evil of this fixation on process is that bureaucracies create meaningless jobs filled by people who are function-directed rather than being held accountable for results achieved.

“You measure its effectiveness by hits and Rands generated. In the strange world of the bureaucracy everything is introverted. All things point to stasis. It is a form of navel gazing. So we see ”vision”, process writ large, pictures of staff, corporate manifestos, pledges and self-adulation – precious little about results.”

Shortly before publishing this post, I exchanged emails with Hugh and he said that little seems to have changed in the five years since he wrote that.

CTRU’s incorporation into Wesgro at this stage was rather puzzling, because the process to create an over-arching Economic Development Partnership is underway.

It seemed a rushed and stop-gap solution.  When I wrote to Winde’s media liaison person on March 12, asking who I could speak to about the changes, my request was ignored but I received the following bald statement:

• “The Western Cape Government’s tourism destination marketing functions will move to Wesgro from 01 April 2012.
• “A Memorandum of Understanding between the Department of Economic Development and Tourism, CTRU and Wesgro, has been signed defining all roles and responsibilities.
• “A Memorandum of Agreement is currently being finalized which will further give effect the arrangements discussed.
• “All permanent CRTU staff will be transferred to Wesgro in line with labour regulations.
• “We look forward to marketing the region under a single brand in a more streamlined and efficient. (sic)”

Little more has been released subsequently, other than the fact that CTRU’s board will continue with quarterly oversight of tourism marketing until various bits of legislation have been changed.  Monthly reporting will be to the Wesgro board.

What happened here contrasted so to the plans given in our November 2011 interview with Andrew Boraine, who is leading the process for the Economic Development Partnership (EDP).  The EDP will be launched as a Section 21 company on April 26, 2012.

All agencies in the economic development, film and tourism spheres that receive any public funding in the Western Cape will be required to be part of this partnership… as a condition for future funding.

The EDP will “lead, coordinate and drive regional economic growth, development and inclusion under a single brand platform through a regional marketing alliance.”  Execution of these plans will still be at the agency level.

So, last month’s sidewideays shift of CTRU was probably just a bit of housekeeping by provincial government — a start at putting all marketing under one roof.  April 1 (appropriately!) is the start of government’s financial year and with CTRU employment contracts coming up for renewal, it made sense to have provincial government’s perennial problem child out of the way before the EDP is launched.

It is a pity the Winde and his PR people haven’t kept the tourism industry better informed.  So what we’re seeing is still an ongoing process rather than any solution.  Winde should acknowledge more openly because, at the end of the day, it’s the people (not the processes) that will make for succesful destination marketing.

I have no doubt that Wesgro will be a better home — for starters, its existence is controlled by the provincial Wesgro Act, and it doesn’t have the same strictures that bound CTRU.

Nils Flaatten, Wesgro CEO

Wesgro is also a far cry from the schoolroom corporate culture of CTRU.  Nils Flaatten, Wesgro’s CEO,  is regarded as a good manager and team leader.  For Province, he must have offered a safe bet to move forward.

But Flaaten must still prove Wesgro’s abilities as far as tourism is concerned, which is very different to trade and investment marketing.  He is concentrating on cross-over benefits to start — of which there are many — and he is sharp enough to grow Wesgro into a more diversified marketing agency.

In Boraine’s interview, he made the point that “fancy mandates and structures will mean nothing if they does not attract the right people — and that is the risk.  It needs a creative environment to achieve that.”

So there are few more jumps to the left, and the right, and some more shuffling before that will happen.  But it is a start in the right direction.

Internationally, Apple — the world’s most valuable company — understands that it cannot divorce the labour practices of its supplier companies in China from the Apple brand.  In South Africa, we’ve seen Cape Town become the most desirable SA city with the strongest brand — because locals have taken ownership and live their brand.

If any SA company stands out for doing the right thing when it comes to branding, surely FNB must top that list.  Until we get the CapeInfo interview with CEO Michael Jordaan, follow him on Twitter (https://twitter.com/#!/MichaelJordaan).  He lives and champions his company’s brand better than almost any other CEO I can think of.

So… what’s Pick n Pay doing so badly wrong to justify this headline?

Before going on, you might wonder if I have it in for PnP.  No I don’t, although I have written a scathing attack in this blog once before (The worst Pick n Pay in SA).  I’ve known the Ackerman family for almost 30 years and have deep respect, admiration and fondness for Raymond Ackerman.  He always epitomised the CEO who lives his brand.

My experiences may be peculiar to just one branch so other consumers should judge for themselves.

Does Pick n Pay live up to its promises?

Firstly, let’s look at the Pick n Pay pledge which you should find on the wall of every branch.  Based on my experience it’s the biggest joke I’ve ever come across.

Secondly, PnP has shot itself in the foot with its house brands.  When the new ranges first appeared in their new packaging almost two years ago, they promised the start of a better shopping experience.  That fizzled out quickly.  No sooner had one become used to selecting the PnP margarine, or whatever, they disappeared from the shelves.

So, from that point of view, it’s not a brand you can trust.  Imagine buying a car where parts are not available?

The milk saga which formed the basis of the previous attack has never been resolved.  Buying PnP brand milk was like playing Russian Roulette — when was the next bottle or bag going to be sour?  In the end, the local supplier, Moordrift Dairy, invited me to visit the diary.  Lovely people but I left with the feeling that they’re using technology (for long-life milk which still needs refrigeration) to hide a problem they’ve always had.  And I changed from PnP milk to Clover.

After a year of avoiding PnP brand milk, I bought a bag again last week… and yes, it was sour.  I took it back and asked the customer service lady to confirm that, which she did.  Am I unlucky in the extreme or am I surrounded by poor consumers who don’t demand their rights, I asked.  She didn’t answer.

I’ve complained many times about empty shelves and basic products  absent from the shelves.  The worst was in the middle of March when I couldn’t find a single thing I needed.  “We’re busy with stock-taking,” I was told.  So the customer is not really that important it seems…

One can forgive almost anything if one is aware that people are trying hard and they address issues head-on when they go wrong.  All I get — when I complain — is lip service and the same excuses over and over again.  I get a manager who rarely greets customers, let alone acknowledges their presence.

Now that’s not what I expect from Pick n Pay.  Anyone who has walked around PnP’s head office or any of its stores with Raymond Ackerman will know how he stops to greet people (often by name) all the time; asking genuine questions and taking an interest in the answers.  If managers can’t do this, they shouldn’t be managers.

Now imagine if store managers took a lesson from FNB’s Michael Jordaan, and used Twitter to get closer to their customers and develop the brand…

Over the past year, CapeInfo has queried problems twice.  Both times we received prompt and courteous replies, but both indicated that all is not well at Bing.

The most recent query related to a sitemap that hadn’t been processed.  (Google processed it in a matter of minutes.)  Here is Bing’s reply on March 8:

Thank you for contacting Bing Technical Support. My name is Albert.

From what you wrote, the sitemap you submitted in Bing Webmaster Tools is stuck in pending status. I certainly know how important this is. Let me explain.

We have received numerous and similar reports about users experiencing the same issue. We have already reported this to our Product Group and this is currently being worked on. Please check again by the end of march if the sitemap status has changed.

Moreover, we assure you that the sitemap is submitted in the server. We apologize for the inconvenience. If you have additional questions, please let us know.

Sincerely,

Albert
Bing Technical Support