George Tourism Conference a success
Issued by George Mun 3 May 2022 for immediate release
Text: George Tourism held a successful tourism conference in George recently and had the support of 36 attendees from local tourism stakeholders.
Dr Kosie Haarhoff, Deputy Director; Strategic Growth and Development, discussed in his presentation the George’s Film policy, which purpose is to facilitate, regulate and standardize filming within the George Municipal area and provide for the issuing of a film permit; to provide for filming in environmentally sensitive areas. Dr. Haarhoff also shared the Events Assistance Policy that prescribes processes to be followed by the Municipality for event support provision, commercial partnerships, event permit applications and more.
Santa Sternsdorf from George Fire Department discussed the importance of population certificates and the importance of the timeous applications of such certificates.
The Garden Route Film Commission shared its focus with the audience. Its first focus is to develop the region as a “Film Friendly” destination for filmmakers. This is achieved through skills development and training in the short term, education of stakeholders and the supply chain and further support for production development.
A second focus is an economic focus which the GRFC must facilitate through its focus; job creation, tourism growth through film events, attracting productions to the region by creating platforms, permitting access to locations and much more.
Chairperson of the Regional Tourism Liaison Committee (RTLC), Denver Johnson, explained the role of this committee and how the different regions in the Western Cape can benefit from being part of the committee.
Cape Town Air Access touched on its mandate to broaden Western Cape air access for targeted international markets, to improve economic competitiveness and shared recovery figures of Cape Town and George Airports since the pandemic. Between presentations, local artists from the Dotsure George Arts Theatre entertained the attendees.
Feedback from some of the attendees was very positive:
Nicola McDevitt from the Fat Fish restaurant raved about the super conference and said stakeholders who did not attend really missed out. She thanked the Tourism team for the time and effort they put into the conference and said the information that was shared was extremely useful and beneficial. She said the resources the Tourism office makes available to stakeholders are appreciated and make a huge difference.
Anthony Rosenbaum from Wide Open Spaces thanked George Tourism for a very informative conference, and it was good to catch up with team members at the event.
Sharon House, Senior Tourism Officer said: “We would like to extend a big thank you to all our tourism stakeholders who attended the tourism conference – it was fantastic to network with you in person, finally – after such a long spell of not being able to meet face-to-face due to Covid-19. It was fabulous to hear feedback throughout the day from the tourism industry, and especially the insights into what is happening in private business ‘on the ground’. We hope to see more tourism stakeholders attend future engagements and encourage all tourism products to engage with our office. Please send us your marketing photos, videos and deals, specials or events to members@visitgeorge.co.za.”
Captions:
Tour 1: Denver Johnson, from Garden Route District Municipality, Sharon House (George Tourism), Melanie Martins (George Tourism), Joan Shaw, (George Tourism Manager), Lika Berning, (Garden Route Film Commission), Kosie Haarhoff (Deputy Director: Strategic Growth and Development at George Municipality) and Danyaal Samuels, WESGRO Air Access Unit at the conference.
Tour2: Melanie Martins, Sharon House, Lindi Harley, Rayvian Moolman, Joan Shaw and Caydyn Louis, the George Tourism team at the conference.
Tour 3, 4, 5: Local artists entertained the attendees at the conference at the venue, Dotsure George Arts Theatre.
Ends.