Letters | State of PMB’s tourism hub
"The job of a tourism association is to create events that bring tourists into your city. To market the city."
I read with disbelief the headline: “Tourism leaders call for urgent city revival.” For years I have kept quiet but no more. When Melanie Veness was in charge of PMB Tourism, you always felt there was hope. But since then, this organisation has done little.
The job of a tourism association is to create events that bring tourists into your city. To market the city. What has Pietermaritzburg Tourism created since the Comrades Marathon, since the Dusi Canoe Marathon, since Art in the Park, since Cars in the Park? Nothing.
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Why is it that Middelburg in the Eastern Cape can create a Wool Festival? In a town that makes Pietermaritzburg look like a five-star resort. Yet they have created a successful festival. Why is it that Nottingham Road can create Beardo’s, one of the most unusual festivals in all of SA?
Why is it that Jono Hornby and Jaqui Hilterman could create their Boom Town concept in Hilton? And why is it that it’s always private individuals and not government who create the great tourism projects in this country? Yet we can’t do a thing in Pietermaritzburg. Lack of money is no excuse.
Crumbling infrastructure is no excuse. Give me your jobs and I’ll change Pietermaritzburg within a year. And I won’t need some group of American students to tell me we could be doing more. I will do it because I love my city. Because I am being paid to do so.
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Lack of funding is no reason not to create new tourism projects in the city. The people who started the Comrades Marathon did not ask for money. They simply started running. The Dusi Canoe Marathon was started as a dare by Ian Player.
The City used to hold the Azalea Parade with men prancing around in bras in the street. And it was a thing of beauty. And for the record. I wrote to the mayor’s office and asked them to support a Unesco City of Architecture bid last year.
They did not even respond to my email. And yet this organisation pins their hope on the Msunduzi Investment and Urban Renewal Programme. Now there’s an oxymoron for you!
Darryl Earl David Simons Town
