This Tourism Week # 84 of 7 May 2008

As we all prepare to board our flights to Durban for South Africa’s Tourism Indaba (which starts on Saturday), perhaps you might like to apply your mind to a question that’s been playing on mine during the past couple of weeks:

Can tourism cure – or does it cause – xenophobia?

We’ve just had the annual Pink Loerie Mardi Gras here in Knysna and this year the run-up to the event was marred by what I think was a particularly vicious attack on the organisers – and on the entire gay community. A petition was circulated; business owners were intimidated (by threat of long-term boycotts) into not supporting the event; anti-Loerie brochures were distributed; and private individuals placed paid-for and openly homophobic ads in local papers … all of which, of course, received huge coverage in the media.

Leading the protest against the Festival was the pastor of a local Christian church and it seems that it was he who drafted the anti-Loerie petition. His argument all along has been that (and here I quote from the petition) “in Knysna, there is a rising tide of objection to the hosting of the Pink Loerie festival here. This objection is in no way aimed against the rights or dignity of gay people. The controversy surrounding the Pink Loerie is a separate entity, disconnected from gay rights issues. The population of Knysna has never been consulted on whether they want the Pink Loerie here or not.”

And here’s my argument: the previous Government used exactly the same kind of talk to justify Apartheid, didn’t they? “We have nothing against black people but their culture/behaviour/hair colour isn’t quite up to our requirements so we’ll not have them in our neighbourhoods, thank you very much (or, to paraphrase the petition – our objection is in no way aimed against the rights or dignity of black people. The controversy surrounding their holding a party in a public street is a separate entity, disconnected from black rights issues).”

Homophobia, xenophobia, anti-Semitism, anti-Islamism, anti-Anything-that’s-not-the-same-as-us: they’re all the same thing.

Interestingly, an estimated 400 people joined our pastor to hand his petition over to the Mayor. In contrast, I calculated that at least 16,000 people turned out to watch the Pink Loerie Parade on Saturday afternoon. How did I get to this figure? Well, they were standing at least four-deep along the road and the path of the parade was a little over a kilometre in length. Given that each person takes up about 50 cm, there were 2,000 people per km x 8 (4 on each side of the road) = 16,000. I’d say that was pretty much a convincing vote FOR, wouldn’t you?

And by the way – how many of those 16,000 were gay?

Who knew? Who cared? … Who could tell?

But what we do know is that many of those 16,000 were visitors to Knysna.

Tourists.

I spoke to Charles van Tonder, a partner in a company that owns four popular local restaurants – all of which rely heavily on the tourism trade (and one of which – 34 South, was an “official pink breakfast venue”).

“It was the combined effect of having the festival over a long weekend, but our group turnover was equal to the kind of turnover we usually only see in the height of the summer holidays. And with five months of winter ahead of us, that’s income we certainly welcome,” he said.

And he also made the point that he was not prepared to be cowed into submitting to the xenophobia of the anti-Loerie campaign.

“When they’re finished with the Loerie,” he said, “what’ll be next? Passover? Ramadan? The Rastas’ Earth Festival?”

The Pink Loerie, as I understand it, was founded for two reasons: (a) to give gay people a platform for self-expression and (b) to give Knysna an economic injection in a historically quiet time of the year – in other words, to boost tourism.

I enjoyed that parade on Saturday, and I went to the after-party and enjoyed that, too. Couldn’t wipe the smile off my face, in fact. I thought it was all good queen fun.

And, I guess, so did every one who was there.

In effect what was happening, if you think about it, was this: a group of like-minded people got together to show their way of life off to anyone who wished to enjoy it (and those who didn’t, didn’t have to come along, did they?).

Many of the people who took part in the parade came from far away – like one troupe of about twenty marchers who came from Cape Town – and I heard many foreign languages in the street. From Knysna, there were black and white and brown, and they, the Knysnarians, made up the majority of the crowd.

And they all had a jorl.

So here’s my question: did the Pink Loerie help the cause of bringing people of different persuasions closer together? Or did it tear them apart? Or was it, perhaps, the exercise of xenophobia (“we have nothing against gays, we just don’t want them to have a party”) that did the damage?

And where was tourism in all of this?

Think about it – and remember that you can leave your comments below (click on the “Comments” button at the end of this post).

See you in Durbs for a GREAT Tourism Week!

NEWS FLASH

A big shout of congratulations to Rick Taylor of the Business Tourism Company. Rick’s a South African tourism marketing guru who’s consulted to tourism bodies around the world – and now he’s been invited to join France’s International Advisory Board.

A South African boytjie telling the French – who have one of the world’s biggest tourism economies – what to do.

I love it!

Your Guests Will Enjoy This Book!

I’ve just received a copy of Saltwater Fishing In South Africa by Hennie Crous (published by Struik).

If you’re running a hotel or guest house on the coast, you really ought to have it in your library. Your guest will enjoy it and you’ll refer to it again and again.

I’m not a fisherman (it’s not that I’m against standing on the beach with a rod in my hand – it’s just that I don’t want to actually, you know, catch anything), so whenever a visitor has asked me about the fishing here on the Garden Route, I’ve sincerely wished for a handy reference book.

Well, here it is.

As you’d expect, the book begins with an overview of tides and currents and goes on to discuss fishing skills (tackle, knots and rigging, bait), but it’s the last four chapters I think you’ll find particularly useful – they describe the species you’re likely to find in rock and surf angling, in estuaries and out at sea. And, finally, there’s a guide to each of the regions of the coast (including, of course, the Garden Route).

It’s a soft cover book, but don’t let that put you off: it’s produced to the level of quality we’ve come to expect from Struik and so it’s thread-sewn, which means that the pages won’t come apart at the spine when the glue cracks. So it should serve your library well for years.

Unless someone finds it irresistible and it disappears, of course.

It’s available in English and Afrikaans (as Soutwaterhengel), it costs just R115,95 and you’ll find it on the BarefootBookshop

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