These follow months of engagement between Wesgro and political leadership, municipal officials and the tourism industry through the board of Knysna Tourism - after the initial request for Wesgro to assist the municipality in delivering its constitutional mandate for tourism promotion and destination marketing.
Wesgro is mandated to promote tourism, trade and investment in the province, as per the Wesgro Act. In order to fulfil this mandate, the agency signs various annual or three-year agreements with provincial government departments like the Department of Economic Development and Tourism, and the Department of Agriculture.
The Agency also signs agreements to provide specific economic promotion services with individual municipalities like the City of Cape Town, Drakenstein Municipality and Saldanha Bay Municipality – these related to, inter alia, the promotion of investment, exports, the film sector, air access and business tourism.
Since the amalgamation of Cape Town Routes Unlimited in 2012, Wesgro has been supporting local tourism promotion efforts in all 24 local municipalities, helping to co-ordinate regional tourism structures and package all of the attractions and tourism offerings of the province into “Destination Western Cape”.
In response to requests for assistance in helping to boost local tourism in line with Knysna’s destination marketing strategy, Wesgro intends to sign a Service Level Agreement with Knysna Municipality and a Memorandum of Understanding with the tourism industry, via Knynsna Tourism.
“The proposed agreement relates to visitor information services and destination marketing activities focusing specifically on the greater Knysna area. This agreement would not affect the destination marketing activities delivered by Wesgro on behalf of the Western Cape Government,” commented Wesgro CEO, Tim Harris.
Judy Lain, Wesgro’s Chief Marketing Officer for tourism added: “Leveraging our network, skills and access to research - we believe the combination of support from the municipality, the strength of the local tourism industry, and the destination marketing experience of Wesgro will make this new arrangement a success for the area.”
Issued by Wesgro Media Team, 3 August 2018