Well-known journalist, radio host and television presenter, Jeremy Maggs, was in Grahamstown last week as
the guest speaker at a Grahamstown Hospitality Guild function.
The guild held its AGM at the Wyvern Club, where Maggs was the guest speaker at the dinner which followed.
Well-known journalist, radio host and television presenter, Jeremy Maggs, was in Grahamstown last week as
the guest speaker at a Grahamstown Hospitality Guild function.
The guild held its AGM at the Wyvern Club, where Maggs was the guest speaker at the dinner which followed.
Maggs focussed on marketing Grahamstown as a town and an end destination for national and international tourists.
He also urged the town to come up with marketing strategies that would help put Grahamstown on the map, not just for the accommodation establishments, but for the benefit of the town as a whole.
Karen Lewis, owner of High Corner Guesthouse, and Claire Fraser, owner of Jenny’s Guest House and the outgoing chairperson of the guild, both expressed their excitement over the plans and ideas put forward.
“It’s always been an ongoing drive for the guild to promote tourism in this town, and we’ve spent approximately R20 000 on advertising alone this year,” says Lewis.
Fraser explained a bit of the history of the guild, saying that it was formed many years ago as a request from the Arts Festival office to raise and maintain high accommodation standards for Festival guests.
From then on, it has grown to include 85 members and has now started to focus more on marketing Grahamstown itself, not just the hospitality establishments.
“This way, everybody benefits.” As for the Soccer World Cup, Fraser does not think that it will affect Grahamstown that much, as the town will be in the middle of the annual National Arts Festival and the Highway Africa conference.
“Maybe there’ll be people who will be travelling here after the Cup is over, but generally, I do not see a huge impact in Grahamstown,” she said.
