Thiofhi Ravele is a Route Networker for ‘Open Africa’. This organization based in Claremont, Cape Town, researches areas where tourism can be promoted throughout the community. This assists in creating employment and helps to alleviate poverty, through the medium of tourism. They identify key players in the local communities, involve municipalities, and identify attractions such as flora and fauna which are unique to that specific area. Open Africa facilitates the establishment of these routes through conducting workshops in the communities, where they also identify local like-minded people who are able to form structured committees to ascertain where their specific area of interest in tourism lies. They then assist further by linking these committees with the support organisations, government agencies and corporate companies for ongoing support.Various sponsors are approached for funding to develop routes such as businesses in the local areas, The World Bank, The European Union, and corporate companies such as De Beers.
The Open Africa Website http://www.openafrica.org/ assists in promoting local tourism, by placing photographs on the website, giving a GPS reading of the destination, and providing descriptions of all the attractions and products available, before the route is launched to the media and other stakeholders. All these services are performed with no financial charge to the community.
Retired SABC journalist and friend of Open Africa, Charl Pauw, conducts interviews with route participants that are posted on the Open Africa website. The website receives approximately 10,500 visitors a month with the majority of visitors coming from South Africa, Europe and the U.S.A. The approximately 200 participants, who are listed on the website, have benefited substantially from the additional marketing.
Article By: Joan Tinker