Dave Osborn is the new Tourism Manager at Cape West Coast Peninsula Tourism and, as a newbie to the industry, he was in our part of the world this week to seek answers to the challenges he faces.

He told me the usual litany: inadequate funding, political intrigues, members who don’t ‘get’ what a tourism marketing organisation is supposed to do (what? You pay R450 a year to your local tourism office and you expect it be your personal marketing agency?). And I was Struck By A Thought as he was talking about quality of accommodation and the fact that small tourism bureaux like his simply don’t have the budgets to go around and check that all their members’ accommodation facilities were adequate - or even equal - to their advertising promises.

We’re in week 2 of our 4-week discussion about Liquor Licensing (thank you, Liquorwise), and there’s nothing voluntary about whether or not vendors have to have liquor licenses - so why should the provision of accommodation, which has to do with many similar issues of safety and hygiene be any different?

Without wanting to create onerous barriers to entry - but bearing in mind that tourism has now outstripped mining in its contribution to the economy - why should any Tom, Dick or Janey be allowed to potentially jeapordise an area’s good name by offering accommodation that’s below par?

In a moment of blindness last year, I checked into a rather pricey guest house in Rustenberg - which turned out to be non-accredited.

Two things should explain my experience: my room had a minimal amount of furniture (no chairs, no cupboards, no table other than a butlers’ tray for the tea things, and the second bed had no linen); and when I asked for rye toast with my eggs at breakfast, was informed that “we only serve toast on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.” Eggs, however, were only served on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.

So what recourse did I have? I had paid in full, the owner appeared to be psychotic or schizophrenic or just plain unpleasant, and I was busy all day at a conference and didn’t have time to look for other accommodation, so I put up with this nonsense as well as I could - although, of course, I did go onto Tripadvisor and write that this was definitely the worst guest house that I’ve ever stayed in - and I’ve stayed in hundreds.

And no, I won’t tell you its name because I refuse to give it any publicity - even bad publicity.

But I think you take my point.

I could have complained to the Rustenberg tourism authority, but let’s face it - our ‘tourism authorities’ aren’t authorities in this country, because they have no teeth in the law. So what could they have done? Wrapped the owner over the knuckles (if they could get past his massive dogs, that is)?

And therein lies the problem: there is no national legislation governing the sale of accommodation to the unsuspecting touring public. (And by the way, watch the press for details: I think we’re going to see many more horror stories like - or worse than - mine over the next seven or eight months.)

I am not normally one for creating new legislation because I think that, as we do, we seem to slip more and more into lawlessness - but this is one area in which I’ll make an exception.

So let’s see a return to compulsory accreditation. It’ll help the industry, it’ll help with the gathering of statistics (and taxes), and it’ll help our customers - and, dare I say it, it’ll create a few jobs along the way.

But most of all it’ll show that we’re serious about tourism in South Africa.

Please comment on this article below.

Liquor Licenses for viewing areas for the 2010 World Cup

Liquorwise has been inundated in the recent past by requests from businesses who want to arrange soccer viewing areas on their premises. They want to entertain their guests and visitors, thereby increasing loyalty levels and the chance of return visits.

But our research normally finds two scenarios: either the premises are not licensed, or the premises are licensed, but the proposed viewing areas are excluded.

In both cases, there is just one answer: the owner must obtain a temporary or occasional liquor license.

Temporary liquor licenses are most often granted for once-off events - such as the viewing of sports events. They can be obtained for periods of up to seven consecutive days.

Three things are required for a successful application: a floor plan (which can be hand drawn) of the areas on the premises where liquor will be supplied; a short summary (which addresses safety and security issues) of what is planned - and a willing license holder. (If you aren’t a license holder yourself, you’ll have to approach someone who is a license holder to apply on your behalf). The license holder remains liable for the enforcement of the conditions of the license - and you would therefore have to satisfy the license holder that all the necessary safety concerns will be or have been addressed.

Then the application is submitted to the local magistrate, who may approve it after perusing a report from the local “liquor officer”, or DPO.

The adage ‘if you fail to plan, then plan to fail’ is very much applicable to liquor licensing. Liquorwise advises businesses to contact them without delay for advice on their liquor licensing plans because professional applications for liquor licenses require time, effort and expertise – all of which will fall into short supply as the World Cup approaches!

Consult Liquorwise – Nationwide Liquor Licensing Specialists With All The Answers To Your Liquor License Questions - and look out for future articles on the subject in the next two editions of This Tourism Week.