Mossel Bay’s taxi associations are to seek entry to the tourism economy. This follows a successful collaboration between one taxi owner and a tour operator during which a total of 800 people were transported to and from a conference and a wedding in the town during the past few weeks.
Two of the associations – Mobati and Ncedo – met in kwaNonqaba this week to discuss a strategy for tapping into the benefits which could accrue from events like the 2010 FIFA World Cup, the establishment in Mossel Bay of various training academies (including the Language Institute which will be opened by the University of Buenos Aires next month), the increase in visits by cruise liners and the presence of independent South African and foreign travellers.
The meeting was also attended by Richard Mellors of Back Road Safaris a licensed tour operator), who, together with taxi owner Gappie Brand, helped to get the project under way.
According to various speakers at the meeting, the taxi associations in Mossel Bay currently represent about 250 vehicles, most of whom are busy only during the hours of five-thirty to eight-thirty in the morning and five to seven in the evening.
For the rest of the work day, many stand idle.
“This presents an ideal opportunity for increased business almost immediately,” said Mr. Mellors.
The meeting agreed, however, that drivers and owners needed training so that they could begin to understand the needs of the tourism industry. Fixed-zone prices (for trips of, say, 2, 5, or 10 km), acceptable and accessible drop-off and pick-up points and a system of identification were also required.
The representatives’ hope was that they would be able to tap into available funding and existing training programmes. All were very positive about becoming involved.
One of the most important reasons for calling the meeting was to begin the process of a creating a “single voice” for transport operators. It is envisaged that this body will elect two representatives to the town’s 2010 Forum and will become both a conduit for passing information to and from the authorities and a coordinator when large numbers of tourists need to be moved about.
Mr. Mellor’s company is the local market place operator for whl.travel, a web site that was originally established by the World Bank to bring web-based business to small and micro enterprises in developing countries. As a private company, it has since grown to include all tourism business, but it has remained true to its founding principles and it is still possible to use it to book (and pay for) tourism services that might otherwise not have access to the internet.
The benefit of whl.travel is that small businesses – like taxis – are no longer at the mercy of large tour companies when it comes to marketing to independent travellers.
“We would be more than happy to sign up owners who comply with the agreed standards,” said Mr. Mellors, whose www.garden-route-tours.travel is one of the fastest-growing sites on whl.travel’s worldwide portal.
Neels Zietsman, chairman of Mossel Bay Tourism, said that he was excited about the idea of welcoming the taxi associations into the local tourism industry.
“Mossel Bay is a unique and exciting place, and offers an almost incredible number of things to do – and having the taxis available to visitors will make many of these things more accessible and therefore more viable,” he said.
“And, of course Mossel Bay is firmly rooted in Africa – it is, after all, the place from which all modern humans originated more than 165,000 years ago – and I’m very excited that we’ll soon be able to offer our overseas visitors the unique experience of traveling in taxis which are as iconic in South Africa as black cabs are in London.”
Taxi operators who are trained and registered tourist guides are definitly the way to go.