KNYSNA NEWS - No sooner had the offices of Knysna Tourism closed its doors last week Wednesday than plans to open them again in November was announced the following day.
It has now apparently been agreed to in principle by council, provincial tourism agency Wesgro and the Knysna Tourism board that Wesgro will assist the council to deliver on their constitutional mandate for tourism promotion and destination marketing, with a target start date of 1 November 2018.
All parties also agreed to and stated their intention that they will utilise the interim period to try and implement/follow the 25 Section 78 requirements as stipulated in the Municipal Systems Act.
The tourism board clarified that the company has not closed down altogether but will no longer attend to the day-to-day management of the visitor information centre, nor bear the costs associated with the information centre as it no longer holds a mandate from the municipality to provide such services.
Knysna Tourism CEO Clive Bennet stated that an amount of R250 000 promised to them by the municipality never materialised, and this was the reason for them closing the office. He claimed the municipality negotiated in "bad faith" and that the tourism board is still seeking to resolve this matter.
'Minimum disruption'
Mayor Mark Willemse announced on 23 August that the municipality will take over the information office until the end of October. “We will make sure that the office is staffed with experienced staff and that the service to visitors continues with the minimum disruption.”
Asked to clarify the status of the Section 78 process, the municipality said, “… the municipal manager will finalise the SLA with Wesgro and these processes will run parallel to it. The Section 78 investigation is likely to take a couple of months…”
Wesgro CEO Tim Harris commented, “We intend on signing a three-year contract with the municipality in the upcoming weeks, we will aim to start delivering against this contract from 1 November – as per our mandate set out in the Wesgro Act.”
According to the press release, the local tourism promotion work for Knysna and Sedgefield will be delivered from Knysna by a reconstituted team of staff. The intention is for the team to be led by an existing senior Wesgro staff member, who will relocate from Cape Town to Knysna to take up this designation.
The press release stated that once the contracts are signed, the first order of business on 1 November will be to ensure the tourism office at 40 Main Road is open and ready to sell the destination.
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