The South Coast - Paradise of the Zulu Kingdom

Hibiscus Coast Tourism Update

AUGUST 2002 The first half of 2002 has seen many exciting changes take place within Hibiscus Coast Tourism; Craig Nancarrow, the dynamic new Director, is injecting a “Passion for Tourism” into the local people, something which has been sadly lacking for many years. At last the various tourism role players are coming together and working together to promote and market the area and ensure we offer the best service possible to our visitors. More and more tourists are now visiting our area and it is up to us to take advantage of the endless opportunities this presents. Hibiscus Coast Tourism is here to help you in your business but it is up to you to ensure that you make maximum use of the services available.

Phindile moved into our new offices in November last year and has done a wonderful job not just for our own area but also for the whole of the Hibiscus Coast. Phindile has now been ‘pinched” by UGU and has been given the job of Tourism Officer for UTMA (UGU Tourism Marketing Association) where I have no doubt she will be a really valuable asset and we wish her well in her new position.

Malinda Kruger, previously from Margate office, has now taken over as the Mpenjati/Southbroom Tourism Officer and we welcome her and hope she will be very happy with us.

ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING The AGM was held on Tuesday 16th July at the Southbroom Golf Club and was very well attended by our members. The whole committee was re-elected and Howard Kelly was welcomed onto the committee. Howard was previously on the Margate committee, is currently Chairman of UTMA and as most of you know, has an invaluable wealth of experience in the Tourism industry.

Our Chairperson Kate Clarence reported back on the Exco meetings, which Kate attends as our delegate, as well as doing an excellent job as Secretary for Exco. Kate reported on the progress made with the amalgamation and some of the exciting plans in the pipeline for the future.

Jackie Pratt reported on the situation with the southbroom.org.za website, explaining that because of the amalgamation, we were forced to change to the Hibiscus Tourism service provider. Due to some confusion between Council (who originally paid our account) Hibiscus Tourism and our own office, the account for our website was not paid and therefore it was removed from the server. Hibiscus Tourism are obviously not prepared to pay two hosts and two service providers so at the time of the AGM it was proposed to levy all members wishing to stay on the site with a small annual fee.

We can now report that subsequent to the meeting we have been able to negotiate a deal with Atlantic who are prepared to host the site for us free of charge, all they require is that they may include their own advertising logo on each page. This we have agreed to, and the site should be up and running again within the next few days. Should anyone require any alterations to their page or should any new members wish to come on board, please contact Jackie Pratt or Malinda in the office; as Jackie will be overseas from 28th August till 15th October.

Our guest speaker at the AGM was Dick Pratt, who is past President and currently International and Local Tournaments officer for the South African Deep Sea Angling Association and also a Protea Deep Sea angler. Dick spoke on the effects of deep sea angling on Tourism, how in the USA and many other overseas countries, sports fishing is huge and brings millions of tourists each year. Dick feels that we could market our “marine Kruger Park” as a fantastic tourist attraction, but in order to take tourists to the wealth of marine life in the sea we do need a small craft harbour. Hopefully in the not too distant future this will become a reality.

SIGNAGE The Information Sign at the Southbroom North entrance was erected earlier this year and our thanks to Len Harvey for not only building the structure but also organizing all the signage. Should anyone wish to have their sign on this board, the fee per sign is R1500, please contact Len and he will arrange to have your sign put up,

Much is also going on behind the scenes regarding signage, we are still working on the brown information sign for the National Road but progress is very slow as this has to go through Province – Piet Rademeyer our Councillor is currently chasing this up on your behalf.

We are also working on new Directional Signs which will supercede the present Cairns and a prototype is to be erected at the corner of Captain Smith and Outlook Roads shortly, we are however waiting to tie this in with the new street lighting.

Should anyone have any problems or queries regarding signage please contact Len Harvey.

BOARDWALK We are delighted to inform you funds have been allocated for Tourism related improvements to Southbroom Main Beach and after some discussion between the Ratepayers committee and ourselves it was agreed to go ahead with plans for a “wheelchair friendly” Boardwalk and Whale watching platform.

It would appear that, possibly due to poor communication, there seems to be some misunderstanding concerning the Boardwalk and many residents feel that it is a waste of money, which could perhaps be spent more productively. Whilst we would agree that there are many areas in need of attention, these are not directly related to tourism and will be dealt with by Council. Should any residents have any suggestions regarding improvements to the area they should send a motivational letter either directly to Council, to the Ratepayers Association or Hibiscus Coast Tourism and we will gladly pass them on. Funds are available for improvements and Council are open to suggestions.

In the case of the proposed Boardwalk, the funds are only available to be used for a specific Tourist Attraction and it was felt that the Boardwalk would be an excellent way of beautifying our area and offering tourists of all ages the opportunity to enjoy the things that we as locals take for granted. Should anyone have any questions or wish to view the plans for the Boardwalk please contact Paul Reynolds on 316 6547.

Hibisucus Coast Tourism would welcome input from our members. Please let us know of any events, functions activities etc which you feel should be brought to the attention of our visitors. Should you have any suggestions or complaints please pop in to the Information Centre next to the Library in Southbroom where we now have a book specifically for your complains or suggestions.

The full list of new committee members with their contact details is on the front page of this letter so please feel free to call any one of us at any time if there is anything you would like to discuss.

The latest Programme of Events is available from our Info Centre as well as Posters and details of the “Gorgeous Acoustics Festival” to be staged at Oribi Gorge over the weekend of 30th August/1st September, please contact Malinda for details.

We trust you all have an excellent “mini season” during the upcoming Transvaal school holidays and look forward to your suggestions and ideas for the coming December season, which will be upon us in no time.

Yours in Tourism

Jackie Pratt

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