Makana Tourism will soon bid farewell to Willem Makkink, who has been at the forefront of Grahamstown tourism development since 1989. Makkink will step down as the Director of Makana Tourism at the end of January.
Makana Tourism will soon bid farewell to Willem Makkink, who has been at the forefront of Grahamstown tourism development since 1989. Makkink will step down as the Director of Makana Tourism at the end of January.
Makkink spoke to Grocott's Mail about his beginnings in the tourism business. He said when he'd joined Makana Tourism, South Africa was slowly creeping into democracy. It was inevitable that tourism in South Africa would flourish, he said, and to be part of this change, his wife opened a B&B, while he tried to find his niche. It was not long before he saw the advertisement in the newspaper for the job of director of Makana Tourism.
"At that time my salary was just R6 000," he said. Makana Tourism was operating on a budget of just R180 000 a year and had only three staff members. With the help of Makana Municipality and private investors such the Brochure Management Company, Makana Tourism grew.
They now operated on a budget of R800 000, Makkinjk said, and had a staff of 16. There were 140 member organisations that contributed to the office budget and among partnerships Makkink had forged was one with Translux. "Selling their bus tickets contributes immensely to the income of Makana Tourism," he said.
Makkink said tourism in Makana contributed about R30 million to Grahamstown's economy. The tourism office itself was also an instrument to create jobs. "Makana Tourism has been the instrument in founding and creating the Frontier Tourism route in Grahamstown. It's also the very first tourism office in South Africa and the first among 10 to have its own website," Makkink said.
Makana Tourism has both a standard website and a mobi-site. The director says he has had three careers in his life. He worked as an electronic technician for two decades, owned a business for 15 years and served as Makana Tourism's director for 19 years.
Fresh out of Pretoria Technikon, where he obtained his National Diploma in Electrical Engineering, Makkink began his working life as a Telkom trainee. The Mpumalanga native was then transferred to Namibia, where he worked for two decades.
When South Africa regained its independence, he was given the choice of becoming a Namibian citizen, or returning and continuing working for the telecommunications company in South Africa. He turned down both offers and instead started his own radio and television company in Cradock, Makkink said.
Makkink says he also built the transmitter that brought M-net to Grahamstown. Makkink says while there were people who supported him in getting Makana Tourism where it was today, it also cost him a lot of hard work and dedication. "I had no training in this.
All that I knew was self-taught," said Makkink, who says his dream is to see more tourism offices open in Grahamstown East and Alicedale. But, for now, the father of two children, with six grandchildren and three great-grandchildren, says he looks forward to sitting down on the stoep, drinking coffee and possibly writing his memoirs.
