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.

Mariannhill Toll Plaza in KwaZulu-Natal. Pic: THEMBINKOSI DWAYISA. 2009. © Sunday Times

The SA National Roads Agency (SANRAL) wants to introduce toll roads on the N1 and N2 between the city and the Winelands.  The City of Cape Town has objected and declared an intergovernmental dispute.

The story first appeared, as far as I know, in The Sowetan – Cape Town not happy with tolls. SANRAL’s website has info on the N1/N2 Winelands Project and N2 Knysna Toll Highway.

Tolling roads is the most insidious form of tax (since motorists already pay a road levy as part of fuel taxes).   As has been shown in Gauteng – which has more toll roads than the whole of the UK – it is the thin end of the wedge.  Tolls for sections like Chapman’s Peak Drive and the Huguenot Tunnel can be justified, but not roads that are part of the essential infrastructure government is duty-bound to provide.

SANRAL has the policy of “the user pays”… but the user already pays.  Toll roads are run by concessionaires for profit, and I don’t believe that essential infrastructure should have costs loaded in this way.

Have your say.  If SANRAL has theirs, you can expect a toll plaza near you sometime soon.

The amount of the levy has not been disclosed at this stage.

That’s what I was told by a senior official in Limpopo’s department of roads, with the undertaking that Gordon Horn, Limpopo’s manager of traffic support services, would call in the following three days.

That was two weeks ago and he hasn’t called, nor have we been unable to get hold of him.  The whole issue arises from our complaint to the presidential hotline about poor traffic management in Limpopo.

Related content:

• If Zuma’s hotline is a yardstick, the Presidency is a waste of taxpayers’ money
• The President’s Hot Air… errm… Line
• Chaos & anarchy in Limpopo

Double barrier lines mean nothing in Limpopo.  To most road users they seem to mean “overtake now!”  Headon collisions are inevitable in Limpopo and every time I drive there, I wonder, “Is it my turn next?”

I’ve driven most of Limpopo and seeing any traffic police patrolling for moving violations is like hen’s teeth.  One does see many manning speed traps or road blocks, or snoozing under a tree.

But these road blocks are a farce, geared more it seems to meeting a quota for the number of cars stopped than checking vehicles.  All they ask for is the driver’s licence.  I have been stopped many times but none have checked that the vehicle’s registration is valid or correct, or that the vehicles lights work, or that the vehicle tyres meet safety standards. Yet any drive between Limpopo and Gauteng in the early hours or around dusk show many vehicles with faulty lights.

It really seems as though Limpopo’s traffic officials are more geared to meeting some impressive-sounding quotas that show how many vehicles are stopped each month.

So until Limpopo’s roads department get serious about traffic policing, CapeInfo’s advisory to tourists remains that driving on Limpopo’s roads is dangerous.