I was having an interesting conversation with one of the moms at Skip’s school a couple of days ago.
As many conversations around kids and *this country* go, the talk invariably moved on to “To Emigrate, or Not to Emigrate…that is the question.”
Now what intrigued me most about this conversation, is that it was with a woman from Germany. Married to a Afrikaans South African. Been living here for four years, before that her and her hubby were living and working in the UK (where they met and married).
Her viewpoint is that she misses the UK terribly. Wants to go back. Her hubby is okay here for the moment, because his parents are here, but agrees that the long term view for him as a paleface in these parts is not good. Particularly since he is of the Afrikaans variety. That their son will have better opportunities elsewhere, and being raised tri-lingually – English/German/Afrikaans Europe seems like a no-brainer. For her, the UK means easy access to visiting her mom in Germany, and naturally for her son to see his Oma as well.
We both lamented the quality of food here compared to the UK and Europe in general, things like the size, and flavour of things like tomatoes, fresh fruit, and the simply huge variety of potatoes. Things that we don’t even realise we’re missing, because unless you’ve ever experienced that in the UK and Europe – well you wouldn’t know would you?
Then our chat moved on to her old friends overseas, and about South Africa in general. My viewpoint is that people overseas have generally thought of SA as a fairly exotic, cool place to visit, since we’re a pretty diverse nation, with all the perks of modern living (HAH, let’s not talk about broadband speed here okay?), but with the advantage of having Africa and all it’s wildife available. But then she made the interesting assertion, that well the whole African experience was highly overrated, and frankly, people, her friends in particular, are simply not that interested.
Now it’s been my experience of Europeans in particular that it has always (more or less) been on everyone’s to-do list in life to ‘do a safari’. So her thoughts came as a surprise to me and I asked her to elaborate.
She went on to say that the costs of travel to South Africa (from Europe and elsewhere) vs going pretty much anywhere else in the world was ridiculous. (She is in the industry). That no European in their right mind would come to SA to be ripped off the way that tourists are, because of the ridiculous prices being charged by hotels, tourism operators, resorts and the like.
She went on to say that the distance involved for Europeans to travel was also a major factor in their decision to holiday elsewhere, and that SA could do a lot more in terms of incentivizing foreign inbound tours by being an affordable destination rather than a premium exotic one.
So while I was taken by surprise completely, since I’ve also always held the belief that SA was pretty cool from an exotic point of view, I found myself agreeing with her, that in fact there are many reasons that are touted by SA tourism for reasons to visit SA, that are frankly, quite mediocre when you really think about it.
Try to put yourselves in the shoes of someone living in Europe for a second here.
SA person: SA has wonderful wild life and Safari experiences!
Euro person: Is it as good as seeing the migration in Kenya? Kenya is not as far, the flights cost a lot less, and the tour operators do not charge as much. Plus let’s face it the Masai Mara is the real essence of Africa.
SA: But, what about our beautiful beaches and beautiful coastline?
Euro: Is it as beautiful as the south of France? Greece? Turkey? Portugal? The Med? Even as far away as the Caribbean, they are just as good if not better and again, the cost is not at rip-off proportions.
SA: Okay, but what about the wine farms and places like Stellenbosch and Franschoek?
Euro: Why is visiting places with wineries with pseudo-european culture such a draw card, when you can have *actual* european wineries just a days drive (in many cases less) with REAL european culture right here?
SA: But SA wine is award winning!
Euro: Yes, that’s why I buy it from my local supermarket, for less than it would cost at the *actual* winery.
SA: Our cities are cosmopolitan and cultural!
Euro: As cosmopolitan and cultural than New York? Prague? Paris!? Vienna?
SA: Um, okay, what about our beautiful mountains and valleys…?
Euro: Are the mountains as beautiful as Switzerland? The Alps? The Pyrenees? The Carpathians? Even the Rockies!?
SA: But we have wonderful theatres and musicians!
Euro: Sure, but is it as good as the West End in London? Also, we do see many South African muscians touring, since they can’t make a decent living in South Africa anyway.
SA: But what about the beauty of the Kalahari, the Okavango and Victoria Falls????
Euro: Dude those are in Namibia, Botswana and Zimbabwe!!!
SA: BUT WE ARE HOSTING THE FREAKING SOCCER WORLD CUP!!!
Euro: Yes, I went the last time it was in Europe, it was great! The public transport was seamless and safe! Why must I pay the extra to go all the way to SA, when we have been warned against all the crime and the hotel prices are so high?
When you look at it from this perspective, it’s quite an eye-opener isn’t it?
Look while I agree on a lot of these points, it’s obvious that there *is* still something about SA that people come to experience, and whether it’s a combination of all of the above factors or a certain je ne sais quoi, it’s not easy to try to convince someone who has this viewpoint.
I think if the inbound tourism industry were to take this into account, we might just be able to find that market niche that begins to bring us visitors again.
I mentioned this view point to my husband this morning, wondering what he would say, being someone who was born here, but raised in Europe. He simply said to me that there is simply nothing on Earth like waking up in “the bush” and having breakfast while the lions are roaring, or having a Gin and Tonic on “the deck” in the evening while the hyenas are cackling (or hyena-ing, or whatever the hell it is that they do).
So I asked him, if he (as a European) would be willing to travel triple the distance to experience this, and pay a premium to experience it, and he said that he might do it just once, adding that if someone hadn’t experienced it before, they wouldn’t know that it was something that they should do at least once.
Interesting…
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