THE Bitou mayoral committee yesterday viewed a presentation on a new tourism vision for Plettenberg Bay and will refer a request to enter into a service agreement with the municipality to a full council sitting.

Tony Lubner, who sits on the steering committee of the proposed new tourism organisation, told the committee he and local entrepreneur Ian Hunter had been asked by Mayor Lulama Mvimbi and the Plettenberg Bay business chamber to give their input on how to take tourism, the town’s economic life blood, to the next level.

Visions of what the town’s “brand” was were fragmented and they had formed a committee that came up with the idea to market Plett as the “sport- nature capital of Africa”.

Its various attractions, including nature, climate, sport and leisure activities, were not the best in the world individually, but were “an unbeatable combination” as a package.

“But it is hard to market a combination of assets, so the challenge was to come up with a vision that could be concisely marketed and build the various layers of our tourism industry around that. Plett is absolutely and undeniably the sport-nature capital of Africa, and that’s our logo.”

Lubner listed 44 sporting activities and more than 25 nature activities that the town could offer tourists.

They aimed to have Plett on the map by June next year when the world’s media descends on the Garden Route for the Fifa World Cup.

Lubner said Plett needed to fill its tourism calendar with sporting and nature events throughout the year to make the most of tourism income.

The steering committee encompasses accommodation, restaurants, tourist activities, retail and service, municipal services, development tourism, nature bodies and sport.

Officials raised a number of concerns, including that sport and nature did not encompass the entire spectrum of what Plett had to offer, how “development tourism” would be catered for and how the benefits would filter to the township areas. Mvimbi said these issues should be resolved before the council discussed the proposal.