Over the past three years Plett Tourism has been has been working behind the scenes to strengthen the town’s tourism potential, and these efforts have been bearing fruit.
Knysna-Plett Herald reports that sustained efforts by Plett Tourism have paid off after a successful AGM on 31 August. Click here to see the full article
At the organisation’s annual general meeting on August 31, which was held at the White House Venue and was well attended, chairperson Peter Wallington highlighted Plett Tourism’s progress.
Wallington said they had set out to ensure that Plett became a premium leisure and adventure destination that protected its natural environment, to build an inclusive economy with benefits for all and to address the area’s seasonality challenge.
This has taken a comprehensive strategy and significant investment. Over the past year Plett Tourism has invested more than R5-million – of which about R4-million came from the Bitou municipality – on bolstering the local tourism industry. About 36% of this was spent on festivals and entertainment, including the Plett MAD Festival, the Tour de Plett cycling event, the Sasfin Plett Wine & Bubbly Festival and the Plett Summer Festival.
The large majority of the festivals were strategically planned for periods during the year traditionally quiet on the tourism front.
About 19% was spent on product and tourism development, 12% on media, social media and the tourism website and 33% on salaries, wages and other office expenses.
This has paid off with the tourism industry in Plett – despite South Africa’s growth of only about 1% a year – having shown a year-on-year growth rate of between 10% and 40%.
Currently there are more than 370 tourism businesses in town and the industry generates about R2.4-billion in revenue, and creates between 3 500 and 4 000 jobs.
Wallington said the growth had rested on four pillars, including making Plett visible through advertising, its website, an e-newsletter, social media, festivals and events and the tourism office.
Another pillar was building strategic partnerships and common purpose, including internally with the Plett community and ratepayers, as well as externally, including provincial, regional and local stakeholders.
Another pillar included building experiences for visitors including the Plett Winelands, Plett Winelands Trails, the Plett Birding Route and other festivals and events. Community development also played a big role including product sponsorship, sport and fashion.
Wallington said the final pillar rested on sourcing investment. This translated into a R2.26-billlion gross value add (GVA).
Plett’s visibility has also grown tremendously with zero fans on Instagram to 2 600 by this year and 5 000 #plettitsafeeling posts. Fans on Facebook are also up 357% from 2 000 in 2013 to 7 150 in 2016. Twitter saw massive growth in terms of followers – 773%, from 420 three years ago to 3 250 this year. Plett Tourism’s YouTube channel has also seen growth with up to 13 113 views and subscriber growth from zero in 2013 to 35 this year.
Plett Tourism’s website has also enjoyed major growth. During the 2013/14 financial year the site saw approximately 4 500 visits per month. This year this has risen to around 12 000 visits per month. The town also enjoyed about R20-million in media coverage over the past year.
Wallington said his hope for the future of Plett Tourism was to build on the successes of the past three years including to grow the town’s festivals and events, leverage regional or neighbouring events and out-of-season tourism, and grow tourism opportunities in previously disadvantaged areas.
Source: Article published in Knysna-Plett Herald
