Cape Town Routes Unlimited (CTRU) is crying foul once again, in that the Premier of the Western Cape and former head of tourism Lynne Brown is challenging the legality of Cape Town Tourism marketing Cape Town, reports the Cape Argus.  

Brown has written to Cape Town Mayor Helen Zille to find a solution to the funding problem, after the City of Cape Town withdrew its 50 % funding of CTRU and allocated it to Cape Town Tourism to market Cape Town.    

Brown’s successor as MEC for Economic Development and Tourism, Garth Strachan,  said that Cape Town Tourism was marketing both Cape Town and the Western Cape at Soccerex in Johannesburg  and at the World Travel Market in London in November, and that this “…would constitute a clear breach of legislation”, referring to the Tourism Act of 2004, which designates this power to CTRU alone.   Strachan sees Cape Town Tourism now acting “in competition with CTRU”.  

Sometimes controversial City of Cape Town Mayoral Committee member for Economic Development and Tourism, Simon Grindrod, resigned as Deputy Leader and member of the Independent Democrats last month, to join the newly formed Congress of the People (COPE), reports the Cape Times.   Grindrod has lost his Mayoral Committee position and his tourism role as a result.   

Grindrod first attracted the industry’s attention when he listened to industry feedback about its dissatisfaction with the inefficiency of Cape Town Routes Unlimited (CTRU) in marketing Cape Town and the Western Cape, and appointed consultants to investigate the organisation’s ability to meet its funding mandate.  The City of Cape Town was a 50 % funder of CTRU at that time, with the province of the Western Cape.    Grindrod did not like the consultants’ report about CTRU, and last year received the Mayoral Committee support to give CTRU the required 12 months’ notice that the City would be withdrawing its R 24 million funding from CTRU, and giving it to Cape Town Tourism from 1 July this year instead.    The industry was shocked by the boldness of Grindrod’s actions, yet has warmly embraced Cape Town Tourism’s ability to market Cape Town in a more focused and efficient manner

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