ACTIVITY GENERATES CREATIVITY

I’d like to think the title of this article is something I dreamed up myself but perhaps I only dreamed I’d done it!

What matters is the validity of the saying; and I really believe in it. You identify a germ of an idea and then you just get going. The more you do, the more your mind moves into lateral thinking; and associated enhancements spring to mind. Let’s apply it to present day Eswatini. If there’s one criticism, in a non-political sense, it’s within the informal, but widely acknowledged label ‘The Land of Wasted Opportunities’. Don’t make me have to list the examples; let’s look for the opposite – a dream turned into reality and then developed into something ultra-special. Look no further than the ‘Bushfire’, an annual event in the Ezulwini Valley that has elevated Eswatini to way up in the premier league for similar events in the world.

Name

It started at an inauspicious time – 2008, the year of a dreadful series of bushfires that destroyed half the Usuthu forest. The name ‘Bushfire’, an event for flat-out pleasure was, albeit temporarily, an embarrassing coincidence. Since that time, the ‘Bushfire’ has expanded to such an extent that anyone who had lost touch with the event for a few years would have been (pleasantly) shocked to learn that 26 000 tickets were sold and if you estimated a total of E30 million revenue you might not be far wrong. A big boost to Eswatini’s tax revenue, one hopes, and a just reward for the organisers. It has become a huge and undoubtedly profitable event with many small traders benefitting from it; and Eswatini itself. And the enormous variety of attractions within the ‘Bushfire’ must surely be the outcome of the early activity helping to continually generate creativity.

Another dimension to the event is the number of people it attracts from outside the country. That’s tourism, and one of our most painful lost opportunities of the past decades. Where is the expansion of tourism facilities in the country? We have one five-star hotel and convention centre, built at vast expense but not in operation. And two more big hotels recently closed. We have landscapes to compete with any country in the world, a charming and friendly population, born and bred to help develop a thriving tourism industry; but there’s little tourism investment.

Development

We have Luphohlo and Maguga dams with almost no tourism development. And in an era when people want to walk and look around them while chatting to their companions, we have the beautiful Malolotja Reserve, so under-utilised that it was recently described, in a journal, as the greatest wilderness in southern Africa. I doubt anyone celebrated that, when so many unemployed emaSwati, flat broke and without real hope, could be employed, in their thousands, preparing tourist-friendly walking trails. You could drop hundreds of tourists in there and not spot one; there’s so much room.

Back to the ‘Bushfire’. There you have real creative and organisational skills. Why not set up a tourism development think tank with inspiration and guidance from the designers of the ‘Bushfire’? One is not arguing for a replica of the existing configuration of the ‘Bushfire’. When you saw the numbers in attendance and the entry prices you could be forgiven for hoping that scarce personal resources were not reassigned from the essentials in life to this exciting diversion. We could focus primarily on attracting visitors from outside, perhaps with hugely concessional rates for emaSwati, and massive TV viewing platforms elsewhere in the country for distance-sharing. How about competitive music and biking events? How about a revival of the events of yesteryear, using the big stadiums, with the ‘Bushfire’ organisers applying their skills to introducing an appealing diversity; creating a unique and compelling attraction to visitors from outside.

Tour

A foreign organisation, involved in the ‘Bushfire’ itself, took a few hours off at one stage to enjoy a brief tour of Eswatini. Covering a sizeable section of our small country, they came back bursting with praise for the beauty and peacefulness of the countryside. Therein lies the spin-off from events such as the ‘Bushfire’. Visitors love the country so much that they vow to return. Potential investors see the opportunities and vow to invest; and they spread the word. But remember – the tourists have to be able to do something while they’re here. The days are gone when the average tourist just wants to look at hills or water. They want activities and there aren’t many.

Tourists are still staying an average of only one day in this country; and often it’s a transit stop. The countryside is screaming to pay for itself. The new domestic airline should be supported with a massive tourism development thrust in the Sikhuphe zone. Tourism is the economic sector that creates the most jobs. We must incentivise more powerfully the international and domestic investors to develop tourism facilities in Eswatini. Watch out for the crooks, while extending a huge – especially financial – incentive to the honest entrepreneurs. Walks between lodges and tented camps in the hills of Eswatini could be little short of paradise. And think of all the new jobs.

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