Known as one of South Africa’s oldest towns and boasting itself as a wine, food, art and cultural destination, Stellenbosch hit a slump like many other destinations in the country when the Covid-19 pandemic struck.
But, that hasn’t stopped the small town from innovating and moving forward from an unfortunate ordeal.
In a bid to get people out and about, Visit Stellenbosch has come up with several innovative ideas, which the Chairperson of Visit Stellenbosch Mike Ratcliffe discussed during Bruce Whitfield’s The Money Show on Cape Talk this week.
Radcliffe said the town is trying to push for swift recovery towards full employment.
“We are driving for some community investment and trying to get some money back into the economy because tourism is such an efficient multiplier of employment. Essentially, we are injecting money into the economy to stimulate the circular economy to get it going again. Its time that we need to get this done,” he said on the show.
Radcliffe teased a few innovative ideas to lure locals to get exploring. Besides adhering to the Covid-19 protocols, the organisation will launch the Stellenbosch Ready campaign this month.
Visit Stellenbosch has also partnered with SnapScan on a new fundraising campaign.
Anybody that visits a restaurant and pays through the SnapScan app will automatically get up to 50 percent of their bill refunded as a voucher on their SnapScan wallet for up to a max of R400. They can then use the money on visiting another restaurant or hospitality establishment within a period of time.
Radcliffe said that through generous contributions from Stellenbosch University, Wesgro, the municipality and other investors, the restaurant will get 100 percent of the initial bill.
He said that they are opened to help other small towns implement some of their initiatives.
“We’ve open-planned the technology… so that anybody can take it on,” he said.