Happy New Year?

In this edition:

  • Bailout? Should Tourism Ask For Government Bailouts?
  • whl.travel Garden Route Franchise Opens
  • Sabrina Love Ocean Challenge
  • Winners Of TTW’s Random House Struik Book Giveaways

Bailout?
According to a Reuters report posted on one of my favourite tourism trade web sites – www.eturbonews.com – Argentina’s President Cristina Fernandez “on Thursday unveiled a plan of no-interest loans to boost domestic tourism, the latest part of a stimulus package to help Argentina weather the global economic downturn.

“A week earlier the government launched a 13.2 billion pesos ($3.87 billion) program offering low-cost loans to consumers, farmers and exporters as South America’s No. 2 economy slows.” (Read the complete report here).

And while I worry any idea to spend yourself out of debt (well, that’s what all the bailouts and packages amount to, don’t they?), you have to admit that there’s some merit in the idea of lending individuals money to go on holiday* – and companies money to create new products.

At first I thought President Fernandez’ plan was perhaps one of the most pro-active moves any government has made for the tourism industry – anywhere. So I Googled it, and it seems (from the lack of similar stories), that I’m probably right: it is a good idea. Too good, perhaps, because I searched terms like ‘tourism bailout’ and ‘travel industry bailout’ and came up with very little.

Governments, of course, make a lot of noise about tourism – how it’ll create billions of jobs, blah, blah – but they’re also pretty adept at doing nothing at all or (much, much worse) putting policies in the industry’s way (bilateral agreements anyone? closed sky policies? visa application processes? exit taxes?).

And – from a tourism perspective – where are the world’s leading governments now that the world is falling apart? And where is our Government in all of this? (I know, I know: they’re on a pleasure cruise on the Gravy Boat. But if they want to COPE with things, my advice to them would be to talk to their Travel Agent about changing ships when they get to the next harbour. Somehow the Love Boat’s got a lot more cachet).

But even though our industry is the politician’s poster boy when everything goes well – and even though we get forgotten pretty quickly when things quieten down – I can’t help wondering if we should we even be thinking about asking for bailouts?

Because I can’t help remembering British Leyland.

As the New York Times put it in ‘A British Lesson on Auto Bailouts:’ “A faltering auto giant whose brands are synonymous with the open road. Hundreds of thousands of unionized workers with powerful political backers. An urgent plea for the government to write a virtual blank check.

“This is not the story of Ford and General Motors, but British Leyland, a car company that went through £11 billion of inflation-adjusted British taxpayer money, or $16.5 billion, in the ‘70s and ‘80s before going out of business.”

And we certainly don’t want to go out of business …

In the end, though, I believe in this industry and in the fact that it’s made up of bright people who’ve always been able to make a go of selling the most nefarious product of all – the human experience.

So, with the caveat that what we do must always be sensitive to the environment and the people who inhabit it – and that we need to do a lot more to stimulate the development of renewable non-fossil-fuels in order to make ourselves sustainable (which mean ‘forever’ – and not ‘for the length of my next elected term’) – I wish everyone a surprisingly successful holiday season and a peaceful and healthy 2009…

* I wonder if Argentina’ll extend its offer to foreigners any time soon? I’ve always wanted to go to Buenos Aires (sigh … tango … it’s like watching … well, it’s like watching …).

whl.travel Opens Garden Route Franchise
Richard Mellors and Jauckie Viljoen – both good friends of This Tourism Week – have bought the Garden Route Franchise for whl.travel  and this week launched their site – www.garden-route-tours.travel.

This is an exciting project because while it’s a great place for independent travellers to book their accommodation and attractions on line, it also has the ability to bring developing businesses and SMMEs onto the web.

Read the full story in my Media Room

Enter Sabrina Love Ocean Challenge
The Sabrina Love Ocean Challenge – staged with the support of the international family wealth advisers, Stonehage (which means that the organisers can donate the income from all entry fees to the Sabrina Love Foundation).

The Sabrina Love Foundation exists to help kids – and the families of kids – living with disabilities in Plettenberg Bay, and once a year the community gets together to walk on the beach, run, swim or cycle to raise funds for its really, really worthy work.

You don’t need to be fit to walk on the beach do you? So get down to Plett on December 28th and join in. And if you’re in Plett already, the Sabrina Love Ocean Challenge Caravan is open in the Central Beach Car Park – and it’s stocked with all kinds of Sabrina-branded goodies which you’ll love as last minute Christmas presents.

More at www.magneticsouth.net

Winners
Here are the winners of my first ever This Tourism Week Giveaway – courtesy of the suppliers of the books I review – Random House Struik

Congratulations! I’ll post your books today…

What’s Martin Reading?
Visit the BarefootBookshop for my selection of a selection of South Africa’s best books on travel and tourism. You’ll find it here.

Need a Specialist Indigenous Landscaping Team?
Talking about the Garden Route – if you’ve got a property in the Plett/ Knysna/ Sedgefield area and you’re looking for a really good landscaping team to fix up your garden – or to plant you a new one, or build you a retaining wall or an irrigation system – may I recommend Dynamic Landscaping?

More here.

Now, for the sake of world tourism, go take a holiday. Or sell one, if you prefer…

And in the meantime – have a GREAT Tourism Week!