Heritage Tourism

How often do we get stuck in our routines and bubbles? Do taxis, cars, homes, schools and offices become the main way we experience the city around us? What are we missing as life rushes from one deadline and commitment to the next? In late 2021, the Collective Genius Centre, a Cambridge syllabus aligned tutoring centre in Rosebank, ran a tour competition to test these limitations and help students discover new ways of experiencing the city around them. The competition format was simple: students needed to submit a tour advert and map to stand a chance of winning some great prizes. 

Scenes from The Collective Genius Centre

The Big Tour Idea

The first step on the journey was to conduct research to find a big tour idea that would attract potential tourists (and impress the competition judges of course). Students spoke to family members and friends to find out what what they enjoyed about Joburg. They thought about their own experiences of the city and what they found fun and exciting. They looked at what existing tour companies offered and what interesting new ideas were emerging in international cities. They also looked at what journalists, bloggers and travellers were writing about...

Hout Bay is the third oldest surviving formal settlement in South Africa, only Cape Town and Simon’s Town are its seniors. Its early existence was largely due to its abundance of timber, however, that valuable resource disappeared within 30 years of van Riebeeck’s arrival and agricultural activity was quickly established as a sustainable living for those who settled there. Around the turn of the twentieth century Cape Town’s and Wynberg’s sustainable water resources were exhausted resulting in the eventual construction of 5 dams which took most of the perennial water from the Hout Bay River and in 1966 the Apostle tunnel took the balance of the rest of the water rising from above that point. The result was the slow but sure death of agriculture and finally Kronendal farm ceased commercial operation as the oldest working farm in the country in 1995.

Hout Bay highlighted – for all the wrong reasons

A significant announcement was made on Heritage Day by a panel of heritage experts that one of Hout Bay’s heritage sites was listed as one of the “Ten most endangered heritage sites in SA”, Hout Bay’s EAST FORT (click here to view).

 A sentry box still remains but the walls of the guard room and officers' quarters have collapsed in recent years (Dave Cowley)

Somehow the ten listed sites, all of which are acknowledged for their exceptional historic importance...

The question above is one that has been asked and answered many times over the years. We are repeating it now as we feel the South African Heritage community needs to continuously push the simple idea that we can help the country to achieve its development goals. This idea is expressed throughout the City of Johannesburg's Heritage Policy. Below are a few excerpts from this policy:

Heritage Tourism

Cultural tourism is the fastest growing segment of the tourism industry worldwide, offering a valuable source of income and employment. For urban conservation, the value of tourism is both financial and as an impetus for awakening interest and attracting support. Tourism, managed with clear objectives, is a source of finance, both in the promotion of historic places and in encouraging and enabling conservation work.

The re-use of heritage buildings for tourist functions can ensure that historic structures are restored and given a living function. Heritage tourism should thus be welcomed as a means of enabling appreciation of heritage and its safeguarding and continuity for future generations. Heritage resources could however face the danger of being permanently lost or ruined if tourism is not managed sensitively. International experience shows that irreversible damage can be caused to historic fabric through the capitalisation of heritage for quick profits, heavy foot-traffic through sensitive areas, and hasty or insensitive restoration schemes. While reasonable accommodation should be made for the needs of visitors, the dignity of historic places must be upheld against interventions that may compromise or trivialise the significance of...