13-06-2017
Wesgro is proud to announce that it is pledging over R100 000 to sponsor and promote the Knysna Oyster Festival and Knysna as an ideal place to visit in winter.
Despite the tragic fires in Knysna last week, the region remains one of the Cape’s most beautiful and still has a lot to offer, and Wesgro - as the Cape’s official tourism, trade and investment promotion agency - is on a mission remind tourists and investors of that.
This financial year Wesgro will sponsor 40 events across the Cape and 11 of those will be in the Garden Route and Klein Karoo region. These events play a pivotal part in promoting the region and creating employment opportunities, particularly within the tourism sector.
“Wesgro encourages all tourists to show their compassion during this difficult time by continuing to support these events and visiting the region. Over 30 tourism establishments (which is approximately 400 - 500 beds) were damaged by last week’s fires but there are still an estimated 4 000 beds available for visitors, as well as a number of sights and attractions still on offer,” said Wesgro CEO Tim Harris.
South African National Parks has confirmed that the Knysna Forest, its wildlife and other natural attractions in the surrounding area were not badly affected by the fires and will reopen in due course. Some areas of fynbos were burnt but as we have seen with previous fires, fynbos comes back even more beautiful after the rains.
In addition to all the planned event sponsorship and attraction promotion, Wesgro’s Extended Development Programme will host an investment readiness seminar in the region next week. Last year Wesgro hosted an Export Development training sessions with Knysna Municipality (in conjunction with the Department of Trade and Industry) to grow the export capacity of companies in the municipality and surrounds.
Wesgro would in the meantime once again like to thank the support services and neighbouring communities within the Garden Route and Klein Karoo for their tireless aid and generous accommodation.