SA Tourism dumps natural icons
2008-12-31 19:01
Cape Town - SA Tourism has withdrawn its offer to officially support four of South Africa's top natural wonders for the international New7Wonders of Nature campaign.
"In quite an astonishing development, we have been told by South African Tourism that they are not going to act as Official Supporting Committee for the SA nominees anymore," New7Wonders' Head of Communications, Tia Viering told News24 from Brussels.
The New7Wonders of Nature campaign is a contemporary effort to create a list of seven natural wonders chosen by people through a global poll, and hosted by the Swiss-based non-profit New7Wonders Foundation.
Four of South Africa's natural wonders - the Cape of Good Hope, Table Mountain, Kruger National Park and Vredefort Crater - had been nominated earlier this year to participate in the international campaign.
However, they need endorsement from a South African official body in order to commence to the next round. After several requests by News24 and members of the public, SA tourism initially agreed to form an Official Supporting Committee for all four nominees.
'Lack of funds'
Unfortunately, when they heard that an administrative fee of $199 was payable for each nominee, they decided to back out, blaming a lack of funds as the reason.
"We unfortunately had to back out of this nomination process," SA Tourism's Global Communications Manager Wendy Tlou confirmed to News24 on Monday.
"As you may know, we work on budgets that have been allocated according to projects that are planned for a particular financial year. Given the impact of the fluctuating exchange rate, and that we operate mostly internationally where the rand is not as strong as we'd like it to be, this has a very negative impact on our budgets.
"As such, we've had to let go of projects that could have brought SA even more publicity purely because of some of these constraints," Tlou said.
According to Tlou she was also rather surprised that the marketers of this campaign "omitted to let us know at the time of doing their pitch that there would be a financial requirement to actually nominate these New7Wonders.
'Improper to pay for just one nominee'
" I must also admit that it's the first time I have heard of paying for a nomination. We are more than willing to endorse and support this, but unfortunately we are not able to do it financially," Tlou added.
However, News24 had in fact explained the process to SA Tourism in an email and also mentioned the $199 administrative fee, when it approached the tourism body for the official endorsement of the 4 SA nominees.
When News24 suggested that SA Tourism perhaps sponsored at least one SA nominee, Tlou explained: "It felt improper to nominate and pay for one over another, so the decision was made that we would opt out of this."
According to Viering the decision of SA Tourism to pull out of the nomination process, is "strikingly short-sighted and unprecedented, especially if you look at the concrete economic benefits generated by participation.
"It is interesting to note that countries such as Vietnam (with an annual GDP per capita $2 600) had no problem to pay the fee, whereas South Africa has an annual GDP per capita of US$9 700," Viering added.
Table Mountain National Park to the rescue
Luckily, News24 can report that not all is lost. Table Mountain National Park has come to the rescue by offering to officially endorse Table Mountain.
"Table Mountain Aerial Cableway has agreed to form the official supporting committee for Table Mountain to be a candidate of the New7Wonders of Nature campaign," Table Mountain Aerial Cableway Company's CEO Sabine Lehmann told News24 on Tuesday.
Lehmann explained that the Cableway operates within the Table Mountain National Park and that it will be endorsed by the park.
"I feel it's absolutely imperative that we sing the praises of South Africa's natural beauty.
"Table Mountain Aerial Cableway Company manages the cableway that takes over 800 000 visitors to the top of Table Mountain per year. We are ISO 14001 certified which is an international certification for our environmental management practices," a proud Lehmann said.
'This is for real'
According to Viering, the New7Wonders office has already received all the paperwork from the Table Mountain Cableway Company as well as a letter of support from the Table Mountain National Park. "They are also in the process of paying," Viering told News24 on Tuesday, "so this is for real - finally!"
"Table Mountain, will get a huge outpouring of support since it is really quite an iconic natural monument," an excited Viering told News24.
"The closing date for the nominations is at midnight on New Year's Eve - Table Mountain was saved as South Africa's only nominee at the very last minute!"
From January until July 2009 people around the world will be able to vote for their favourite international wonders of nature, of which Table Mountain will be a proud participant.
Voting will close on 7 July 2009. Thereafter, the New7Wonders of Nature Panel of Experts, under the leadership of Prof Federico Mayor, former Director-General of Unesco, will review the top 77 nominees and choose the 21 finalists, to be announced on 21 July 2009. The 21 finalists will be put to popular vote.
"So, keep on voting,' Viering said. "Table Mountain has a great chance to make it as one of the world's New7Wonders of Nature. It's exactly the kind of iconic nominee that will get lots of support quickly."
To vote for Table Mountain click here