Being a niche market, battlefield tourism is yet to recover from pre-COVID-19 lockdown levels.
“I will give the local tourism market 6 out of 10. Those busloads of international tourists are simply not coming through any more. So many bus companies are no longer in business so we have to make do with what we get,” said veteran battlefields tour guide, Anthony Coleman.
Pam McFadden, former Talana Museum curator and chairperson of the Battlefields Route Committee, opined that while Cape Town, the Garden Route and Kruger Park are back to previous tourism number levels, the battlefields – which is generally known to attract ‘older visitors’ – will have to think out of the box in a bid to bring in tourists.
“This may involve events like the recent bicycle race that passed through many historic landmarks and more adventure-orientated happenings in a bid to bring younger people and pique their interest in our battlefields.”
Traditionally, the route stretched from Newcastle to Eshowe covering the Anglo-Boer War, Anglo-Zulu War and Boer Zulu battles.
Funding was from district and local municipalities, tourist organisations, businesses and individuals.
“Unfortunately only the Umzinyathi District Municipality continues to give the route funding with a grant of R28 000 a year. Other municipalities simply do not bother to pay (we had to write off about R83 000 because of non-payment) and sadly they do not seem to understand that tourism brings to their towns a revenue stream,” McFadden said at last week’s annual general meeting of the Battlefields Route held at the Talana Museum.
Another problem, she told the meeting, is that accommodation establishments and tour guides are often reluctant to provide stats making it difficult to calculate the value of the ‘tourism Rands’ brought into the area.
Marketing of the Battlefields Route is done digitally through the Cannons and Cosmos magazine, published quarterly and attracting a readership of around 25,000, through the distribution of traditional brochures and advertising.
Alternative approaches were discussed with Toy Mtshali of Zulu Time suggesting a ‘story, style video documenting a tourist’s experiences on the route, similar to the popular Voetspore TV programme’.
Further good news is that Wakkerstroom, just over the KZN border in Mpumalanga, a famous birding and cultural ‘hotspot’ was represented at the meeting by Roy Elliott who said the local tourism committee there is keen to join the Route.
“Proof enough that tourists are not interested in political boundaries when they come to our area – and that’s the strength of our battlefields route,” McFadden said.
