Overstrand Tourism returned from the annual Africa’s Travel Indaba and continued with an intense level of engagement on several projects. While CapeNature Stony Point Penguin Colony’s boardwalk has been closed for repair work till the end of June 2023 there has been increased attention given towards the plight of the endangered African penguin with a new four-year WWF Kleinmond project to Save the African Penguin. This project will be rolled out with stakeholder engagement sessions and there has already been an advertisement published recruiting two environmental monitors.
Planning has started on the Overstrand Tourism Indaba to be held during Tourism Month in September. The objective of this Indaba will be to draft a new tourism strategy for the Overstrand, engage the different sectors and establish where development should be prioritised.
Overstrand Executive Mayor, Dr Annelie Rabie, envisages “an emphasis on a cutting-edge approach towards a sector that unlocks the majority of economic benefit”.
Tourism is organising a Hangklip-Kleinmond Book Festival in October as a follow-up to the first festival hosted in 2019. Due to the great number of authors, screen writers, journalists and literary accomplished individuals living in the Hangklip-Kleinmond region this Festival will celebrate the great work done by the residents.
As the Overstrand links with neighbouring Overberg municipality Cape Agulhas - the stetch of African coastline where the Indian Ocean meets the Atlantic Ocean. While there has been work done to raise awareness about the Southern most point of Africa Mayor Rabie wishes to drive the point home with an endurance marathon testing physical wellbeing within a geographical location where much can be learned about its marine life.
Overstrand joined the UNESCO Creative Cities Network in 2019 and as part of this network Tourism initiated several painting activations for International Children’s Day on Thursday 1 June 2023. These will be held at the Mount Pleasant and Hermanus Libraries, at African Penguin and Seabird Sanctuary Kleinbaai (APSS), Pringle Bay and Masakhane. The focus will be marine life and children younger than sixteen years will be painting to the theme.
Overstrand claims its recognition for the best land-based whale watching in the world and will be doing the Welcome Whales Wave for the third time later this year. This practice was initiated by the deceased Robyn Chalmers and will continue to commemorate Robyn’s love for the ocean and specifically the Southern Right Whales.
Tourism proposal to the Craft Design Institute to participate in an entrepreneurship programme was approved. This will help small and micro craft and arts businesses with product development and market access.
In addition to the activities mentioned Overstrand looks forward to a busy 2023 Southern Right Whale Season, Hermanus FynArts in June, Kalfiefees in August, and Hermanus Whale Festival in September. There is a magnitude of other events put on weekly that is distributed via the tourism offices.
Mayor Rabie said “Overstrand remains confident that we will see an increase in tourist numbers as the Southern Right Whale season takes off and our anchor festivals are hosted consecutively over the next months”.