Plett’s eclectic experiences offer fun all year round by Peter Wallington
Peter Wallington
The Plett tourism experience continues to evolve into an excitingly eclectic mix – and our seasonal themes will help distill our offering for our visitors! And yet despite the continued investment in tourism experiences in recent times, there remain significant opportunities and challenges which are now being tackled, principally in heritage and culture tourism and in the development of sustainable tourism opportunities in previously disadvantaged areas, and for previously disadvantaged businesses and individuals. We’ve packed Plett into four fun-filled seasons – Summer, Adventure & Nature, Culture & Heritage and Wine & Food. The experiences capture the very best Plett has to offer – and they’ll help address past legacies and build the “One Plett Economy” which Plett Tourism is committed to.
Plett Summer is now our high season, and it’s anchored by Plett Rage, Plett Summer Festival, the Sabrina Love Challenge, Polo and the Plett Hobie Regatta, the Street Light Party, New Year’s Eve and a growing number of attractions in or from Kwanokuthula, including the Ikasi Beer Festival, Kasi Flava Picnic, Cula Loxion and the Plett 24 Hour Summer Reunion.
Our second set of experiences is Plett Adventure & Nature, where we celebrate a number of events and activities, including sport, cycling, hiking (including our recently launched and acclaimed The Plett Trail, operated on behalf of Plett Tourism by Venture Beyond), birding (our Plett Birding Route is in search of funding but ready for take-off!), whale watching, our animal and bird sanctuaries and game reserve.
And then there is Plett Heritage & Culture. The Plett MAD Festival (Music, Arts and Drama) is the winter anchor festival and there are ambitious plans in the pipeline, in part informed by our voyage of discovery around Plett.
There are many untold stories, and they are mostly to be found in previously disadvantaged (PDI) areas. Plett Tourism has commissioned various people to write the history of the PDI communities, and these submissions are being put together with the slightly better publicised “white” history of the town – creating a Plett story that embraces all its people. In putting the stories together, we are unearthing opportunities in the arts and culture space which will enrich our proposition to tourists and create employment. We have been working with a number of entrepreneurs from Kwanokuthula over the past year, and here are just some of the highlights:
- Sivu Nkomo’s Siv Events & Marketing has produced the successful Plett Chill Out and he has other events lined up for development over the months and years to come;
- Mpumelelo Mvunelwa’s FriCreatives developed the Plett 24Hour Reunion fashion show which was a part of the Plett MAD Festival in 2016, and his Plett 24Hour Summer Reunion will now take place as part of the Plett Summer Festival programme on Central Beach;
- Trevor Mapitiza of #DreamChasers has been our MC at both the Plett 24Hour Reunion and the Sasfin Plett Wine & Bubbly Festival;
- Thembinkosi Henge from Warafika Tshisha Nyama, and Ikasi Beer Festival; and Phaki Sebezo’s Khula Enterprises has launched the Plett Tourism Educational Tours, successful interventions to introduce local school children to Plett’s tourism world – and the opportunities and revenue the industry brings to the people who live and work in the town.
There are many other projects in the mix. Bitou Municipality’s LED (Local Economic Development) department is bringing the Umthombo Cultural Village in Qolweni to completion and Plett Tourism will work with the management cooperative to make it a success. Elsewhere, conceptual work on projects in both Kranshoek and Kwanokuthula are at varying stages of work in progress. Again, Plett Tourism is working with the LED department in many instances and expects, in the next year or so, to see significant movement as Plett broadens its offering.
Plett Wine & Food is our fourth set of experiences, and its centerpiece is the Sasfin Plett Wine & Bubbly Festival and the Plett Winelands, a relatively recent arrival as a tourist attraction. Interestingly, as a business node in its own right, it points to how successfully new experiences can evolve if aligned to the Plett brand.
Today, there are 16 farms and estates clustered in Harkerville to the west and the Crags to the East that make up one of South Africa’s newest “Wine of Origin” regions, and visiting wine estates has quickly become a favourite activity with guests staying in town. A tailored wine estate tour company – Plett Wine Tours – has seized this new business opportunity to service this emerging market. We were delighted to attract Sasfin to sponsor the first Sasfin Plett Wine & Bubbly Festival in 2014 and have grown with them since then; in 2016 attendance topped 1,500, three times the 500 in 2014, and our ongoing plans to keep adding value to the festival will ensure its growth in years to come.
There is more than wine of course: Plett’s growing olive and honey bush tea industry provides new opportunities in agri-tourism, and we have more to offer in weddings and honeymoons, and especially in the conferences and exhibitions space The iconic Beacon Isle Resort (Tsogo Sun) will have spent some R200m over a ten-year period in a series of refurbishments and additions. Most recently, the Beacon Isle opened its new conference facility, confirming the potential of this largely untapped opportunity.
We do live in exciting times! There are endless opportunities to build a more inclusive economy and society which offers its people a great place to live, and our tourists a magical place to visit.
