CAPE TOWN VISITOR LOSS A RESULT OF A LOCAL CAMPAIGN GOING VIRAL ON A GLOBAL BASIS
(Posted 18th June 2018)
Questions are being asked now in Cape Town, where according to figures seen visitor numbers over the past year dropped by a double digit percentage, if the ‘Save Water‘ campaign using phrases like #WaterCrisis did more damage than good.
A recent return to the so called ‘Mother City‘, where some rain has helped to start filling up the water reservoirs around the city, gave the opportunity to talk with and listen to the local experts.
Said one wishing not to be named: ‘The water use campaign was aimed at and directed at the local population. Of course these days with social media and everyone picking up such issues, the #WaterCrisis hashtag soon went to a global audience. We figure that visitors consume a mere 3 percent of the local consumption but their coming to Cape Town has a huge impact on the local economy.
Cape Town for 2017 was once again Africa’s leading convention and conference city and in addition we have business visitors and regular tourists coming to see the iconic Table Mountain and do sightseeing tours to Stellenbosch and other places like Robben Island. We need the tourists to keep coming here so that some 300.000 jobs in the hotel and tour industry can be protected but also to have more jobs created. Our water situation is still a challenge but it is time now to do away with the crisis talk and promote once more the attractions of Cape Town and give people reasons to come here, not to stay away‘.
While last in Cape Town for World Travel Market Africa in April did Ross Baines, Director of Sales of the Westin Hotel reveal that they had invested in their own desalination plant, an initiative aimed at ensuring the availability of water for the hotel’s operations besides a wide range of more conventional water saving measures which were put into place over the past two years.
This time was it Mr. Darren Hailstorms, Deputy General Manager of the Tsogo Sun Cape Sun Hotel, who engaged in a conversation about what his hotel was doing to mitigate any challenges with water supplies.
Q: What measures has your hotel in particular but also the hotel group Tsogo Sun taken to create awareness among your clients to the need to save water, without unduly alarming them?
A: As far as bathrooms are concerned we have displayed water saving signage. It has been placed in all guest bathrooms but also public areas and even in the back of house.
Guests are informed of the drought and asked to assist with water saving initiatives but we have in addition invested in:
Installation of flow limiters in bedroom showers.
Installation of micro-jet flow limiters in bedroom basin & public area toilet taps.
We also removed bath plugs to prevent excessive water use as a bath can take anything from 80 to 100 litres.
Q: Those are impressive measures but I understand you have gone beyond those initiatives and implemented further water savings. Please explain to ATC News what that involves?
A: We have accomplished a reduction in towels per room and initiated a temporary withdrawal of voluntary towel re-use program to become a compulsory re-use program, with some limited exceptions.
We also reduced the frequency of changing bed linen.
The removal of face cloths too is in effect but those are available on request.
Guest laundry is now hand washed when loads are limited guest laundry.
We have also replaced linen napkins with good quality paper napkins in restaurants to reduce laundry loads and save on water.
Q: When we talked earlier on you mentioned even more measures your hotel and other Tsogo Hotels have taken. Please share those initiatives with my readers.
A: In our kitchens we have upped steaming cooking method used as opposed to boiling which saves quite a bit of water.
We have purchased water-repellent tablecloths reducing laundry thereof.
Across public areas we have installed waterless urinals.
The water pressure has been reduced throughout the hotel.
Underground sourced water being used for our garden and outside hanging plants.
And finally we have reduced the hotel window washing program.
Thank you Darren for sharing these initiatives and measures with the ATC Readers and all the best to you and your colleagues at Tsogo Sun and the hospitality industry across the board in Cape Town to master these challenges until the water situation returns to fully normal.
What is clear is that Cape Town needs tourist visitors aplenty and has to continue to hard sell the city on the global MICE, business travel and regular tourist markets to maintain the employment levels in the city and add jobs when arrival figures point upwards again. Towards that end all the best to provincial and city officials and those in the private sector who work hand in hand to accomplish both, saving water AND saving tourism at the same time.
