This Tourism Week. 21 October 2009
A New Tourism Paradigm?
Once upon a time there lived a little country on the southern tip of Africa that tried to eat itself up. When it realised that that wasn’t going to work, though, the different people of the country made friends (although it was difficult at first). And then they all lived happily ever after.
The end.
Bet that got you, huh? It was a real story, with a beginning (go on, admit it: you HAD to find out what happened), a middle, and an end - and it gave you a moment’s diversion, and maybe, just maybe, it also made you think for a second about that little country at the southern tip.
Yesterday was one of those wonderful days we have in tourism where a bunch of us were able to get together for a function (it was the re-turn of the Outeniqua Choo Tjoe, which Western Cape Tourism Minister Alan Winde blogged about here), and, as sometimes happens, some of us fell to talking about the deeper meaning of tourism.
Here’s what I had to say:
For some time now I’ve been trying to work out what it is that differentiates South Africa as a tourism destination.
- The Big Five? Pah! The Serengeti’s got bigger and fiver.
- Our beaches? Nah: even Australia’s got beaches (and they’ve probably got dinkum babes on them, too).
- Our landscapes? Sorry, everyone’s got a landscape.
- It must be our people then? No again: hell, even the Vatican, the smallest state in the world, has people.
So what could it be? Because those are all the things we’ve been marketing up to now.
I’ll tell you: it’s our stories. And I don’t think we’ve even begun to tap into their potential.
This is the most unique country in the world because of its story - which stretches all the way from well before the dawn of modern human behaviour (165,000 Years Of Holidays In Mossel Bay) , to the fascinating work of the Sutherland Observatory - and beyond.
Sheesh, man: we struggled for democracy and achieved it at enormous cost - and without an actual, you know, civil war. How can we NOT be unique?
Now here’s a challenge: look at a typical day’s television. Sports, documentaries, drama, comedy, tragedy, and (the greatest tragedy of all) reality TV. All wildly popular, right? And what do they have in common?
Storytelling. Because everyone loves a story.
Now when you apply that to tourism, I think a whole new paradigm opens up for us.
But.
South Africans are natural born storytellers. It’s in our blood. We’ve done it for centuries: for aeons, even. But I think we’re great at passing our stories down amongst ourselves - and we clam up when other people want to listen.
A brief search of the internet reveals a satisfying number of academic studies into story telling in Africa - but only one Story Telling Route (run by Coffee Bean Routes), and a depressingly small library of books of African myths and legends (I found a copy of African Myths and Legends - the big one with the green and black cover which I remember from my childhood and which I’ve been after for a while - at a flea market stall last week. But at three hundred bucks it was a little too heavy to carry).
And yet at any braai and in any shebeen - and in most homes, I guess - someone will often enough start telling a story that’ll soon have the audience spellbound, and often in stitches. “That’s good!” someone else will cry. “You should be on Television!”
Or in tourism.
And no, I’m not saying that everyone should be a tour guide. But I cut my teeth in tourism at Featherbed Nature Reserve, where I learned that people want to be entertained in a structured manner, and that the quality of the stories I told directly influenced the quality of the tips I received.
And there ain’t no better measure than that…
Every town and every dorp in South Africa has its fascinating places with fascinating stories: I think we need to root them out, dust them off, and present them to our visitors in a much more formal and organised manner than we’ve been doing.
And we need to tell the world that we tell stories. Because that’s what makes us unique.
(Help me here. I’m getting a headache from trying to think this through. How can we tell our stories in new and unusual - but structured ways? Let’s get a debate going - paste your comments below).
And now - go away on holiday. It’s in the country’s best interest…
Stumble It!
8 users commented in " A New Tourism Paradigm? "
Follow-up comment rss or Leave a TrackbackMartin - you hit the nail on the head.
TV Bulpin or Lawrence G Green should be mandatory reading. They found unique points of interest along almost ever dirt-track in Southern Africa. We need to carry on that tradition…
I have a school friend called Carol who has lived out of the country since the mid 1970s but has returned often since the 1990s. Recently her mother died. She had been living at a frail care facility down on the southern Cape coast and had been looked after with loving gentleness by wonderful care-givers. The funeral was on the Friday, the cremation followed and Carol received the ashes on the Monday, the day before she was due to fly back “home”. She, her sister and the caregiver took “Mommy’s ashes” to the shoreline at the mouth of a river. Finally realizing that the box was sealed not with a hinged lid but with screws, battling against a vigorous coastal wind, clutching the flowers to be sent out to sea with “Mommy’s ashes”, and teetering on an uneven bank, all presented their own challenges under the emotional circumstances. Nearby was a local fisherman who was watching all this with interest. Finally his curiosity got the better of him and he asked what they were doing. On being told, he initially suggested that the garden would be a better place as then they could always visit her. However when told that this was where she had wanted to be scattered, he said ‘But then we must say a prayer for her.’ Ursula the care giver instantly responded with the Lord’s prayer. My friend Carol has the long-lasting memory of standing on the edge of the sea with her sister, Ursula the woman who had cared so lovingly for her mother for the last 6 years, and a fisherman called Daniel, hitherto unknown a complete stranger – all holding hands and bidding her beloved Mommy a final farewell. It is these connections on such a deep human level that make this country so extraordinary.And there are lots more stories like this.
You are dead right! I recently had some time in Grahamstown - I know the place, was at school there - but did a trip with Allan Weyer, he was brilliant and held me spellbound for three hours - huge potential
Martin, I have been a tour guide since 1995 and now I run a small tour operation. Stories have always been an integral part of the way I do my tours. Maybe it would be a great thing if tour guide colleges would teach stories instead of the huge amount of ‘facts’ currently forced into the brain of prospective guides. Tour guides would then qualify on their ability to tell stories and not on the ability to regurgitate facts. Story tellers are becoming hard to find.
Take care
Have you tried using a GreatGuide, http://www.greatguide.co.za ( a GPS navigator, tour guide, recommendation guide and itinerary planner all in one) It is packed with wonderful stories. From why the Durban city hall has a fire place in every room (no not because of climate change), to the Ghost story of Boontjieskraal, the shipwreck of the Merriman, Why Langa was formed and much much more ( in fact we have over 1800 sound bites). If you feel you have a story that you want told on the GreatGuide please mail it to us. brian@greatguide.co.za
Story telling is a great idea, Martin! Let me tell you of our different way. You may well know David Juritz a highly-talented Cape Town musician. He’s particularly famous for his FERDINAND THE BULL, which he tells with his own violin accompaniment.
Last year we started running a series of annual concerts for our charity Footballs For Fun, which you so kindly support. And who should be the ideaL person to help us tell one of the most famous African stories, HOW THE WARTHOG GOT ITS TAIL? You’ve got it.
In front of a capacity audience in St Martin-in-the-Fields, he and his brother told this lovely story with great humour, both verbally and musically.
It’s a great way to take Africa to the potential market!
Martin I totally agree - it is precisely what SA Direct is trying to achieve - making the authentic African story accessible to global audiences. Audio visual long form content (video) is the way of the future. The story (content) is step one. The next step is to get as many people as possible to actually have access to the story (distribution). The 2010 FIFA World Cup represents a unique opportunity to capitalize in the interest in our region. The internet is also increasingly becoming video focused which represents an increasingly important and cost effective way of distributing your story. The tourism industry must move quickly - get your story on video now!
Martin - your article is a breath of fresh air.
We have recently launched a Cape Town inner city cycle tour and from the outset the goal was storytelling and entertainment. During our research I was gob smacked by the lack of literature out there that is based on stories. There is plethora of date-based books but very few stories. It has taken months of research but I think we are ready.
Storytelling - it is a skill and one you cannot get a qualification for but it is as you say vital and a key differentiator. Onwards…..
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