12/02/2022
I personally feel that we need a consolidated effort to DRAW visitors into Drakenstein; local, regional, national and international visitors.
All operators, products and associations should work together and create a combined promotional drive.
Wedding tourism is a large part of accommodation and revenue.
We need to capitalise on it and get guests to book a longer stay. We need transport operators to bring guests to and from Wineries, restaurants, events and weddings. Small “tuk-tuk” like vehicles could create a number of jobs too.
We also have a massive issue with staff transport. The taxi, bus or train brings staff to a centralised place, but they still have to walk (in Wellington’s and Paarl’s heat) to the actual place of work. This has the effect that we cannot offer early bird breakfasts for business guests. The staff also cannot get home after late events. If a tuk-tuk fleet could be established we could have great advantanges for visitors to get around and for staff to get to/from work more easily. Even school kids could get home on their own.
The mountains are not used /accessible enough.
A taskforce of youth employees can be started, to clean and upgrade picnic spots all along Bainskloof and R101. They can be taught to build and maintain picnic tables and garbage bins. They can maintain pathways and clean up after messy visitors, even act as guides in the mountain paths.
Mountains are a huge asset in our region. Many visitors and locals would love guided walks and rides. If we could train up some of our youth as guides, they can make a living escorting riders and hikers.
New entrepreneurs can sell to the visitors: sun screen, caps, walking sticks and towels
Recycling
In my little unimportant opinion recycling is not working. It is becoming more and more important as visitors want to know and see sustainable cities. We need to setup a compost-plant. Guesthouses, restaurants and events produce large quantities of organic waste. Once again youth-employment can be used to collect the waste and deliver to a central point for processing and selling it.
The massive youth unemployment in out area needs to be tackled by EVERYONE. Our youth have nothing to look forward to after school. The viscious cycle of no experience, no job, poverty needs to be addressed criticallly urgent.
We need to become known as:
the Municipality that CARES.
And DOES something about it.
Getting a clean audit is fantastic, well done!! But we need to address social issues. People with nothing to loose are dangerous and destroys communities.
Vision, Action and Entrepreneurship is the only way out of the unemployment hell.
How can we make this happen? No negative comments please. Let’s roll up our sleeves and DO something
