Economic Opportunities
- How much funding has his Department given to Knysna Tourism from 2014 to date;
- whether due process was followed in giving these funds; if not, why not; if so, what are the relevant details;
- whether there has been any investigation into allegations of irregularities involving any funding received by this company; if not, why not; if so, what are the relevant details?
- Through Wesgro, the Department’s economic promotion agency, the following funding has been given to Knysna
Tourism.
2014 R75 000 Event Marketing Agreement for the Knysna Oyster Festival
2015 R40 000 Joint Marketing Agreement for the development of a Garden Route Mobile App
2016 R20 000 Event Marketing Agreement for the GR300
2017 R65 340 Event Marketing Agreement for the DarkFest
2018 R100 000 Joint Marketing Agreement for the Knysna Rises Promotional Video
Total: R300 340
Event organisers in the Western Cape may apply for event funding support through Wesgro as part of the marketing promotion of the province, and to drive geographic spread of tourists. All event applications are reviewed by an internal committee and the best proposals that meet the criteria are then selected for funding. There are very clear criteria that needs to be met to be applicable for event funding. This include (a) must take place during our low season (b) must drive geographic spread (c) must employ services and resources from the local business community.
A joint marketing agreement is entered into with a partner based on shared promotional activities, and is co-funded by both parties. This specific project benefited the Garden Route and Klein Karoo region as a whole and was project managed by Knysna Tourism at the time.
- Wesgro Event Marketing Agreements – we were satisfied with the all of the post campaign reports that showed that the events had taken place, and that set out the indicated return on investment received from the funding.
Joint Marketing Agreements – the video was produced and shown to Wesgro. The Mobile App was shown to Wesgro. Both projects achieved the destination marketing objectives required by Wesgro. Accordingly, there was no need to investigate any irregularities relating to the funding provided.
