CAPE Town will be less competitive as a global tourist destination if the city council goes ahead with plans to restrict liquor trading hours, says Western Cape MEC for Finance, Economic Development & Tourism, Garth Strachan.
 
Presenting the province’s position on the city’s draft by-law on liquor trading hours at a public hearing in Cape Town yesterday (February 17), he said the proposed by-law did not consider the impact it would have on the tourism industry, in particular the hospitality sector. Restricting liquor-trading hours would mean reduced services to domestic and international tourists and business tourism, while tourists were already complaining about the lack of after-hours activities in the city.
 
Strachan said tourism industry associations, in consultation with their members, agreed the proposed by-law would significantly contribute to unemployment, impact on the 2010 FIFA World Cup and also adversely affect other regions of the Western Cape. “The voice of the tourism industry should be heard, given that it is a huge contributor to jobs and that it contributes 10% to the GRP (Gross Regional Product),” he said.
 
Strachan said the city council should be concentrating on matters of planning and zoning rather than “aiming volleys at the wrong targets: the regulated tourism and entertainment industry in Cape Town”.
 
“The 11h00 to 21h00 restriction placed on establishments in residential areas (B&Bs, guesthouses, hotels, pubs, taverns, restaurants, clubs, and places of entertainment) is harsh, ill considered and impractical. It should be noted that this provision is not aimed at limiting liquor trading hours at shebeens, which are specifically excluded.  It would therefore seem that shebeens already licensed by the Liquor Board, many of which have established themselves as players in the tourism arena, would not be permitted to sell liquor at all, despite the fact that the Liquor Board has duly licensed them.”
 
He said the city council had a constitutional responsibility to promote economic development, but the draft by-law failed to take into account the economic impact of its implementation. He said the city council also had done little to promote small traders in a regulated liquor industry.
 
“I have to register my concern that both the content and timing of the publication of the draft by-law seem to indicate an unwillingness by the city to engage in co-operative governance with the provincial government.”