Travel Quest tests NMBT’s endurance

WITH tourism month coming up, Nelson Mandela Bay Tourism (NMBT) has decided on a fun way to celebrate this month by having an ‘amazing race’ through the city for the frontline staff of selected lodges, hotels and guest houses.

“We decided to call our race The Travel Quest as participants’ knowledge of the city, its attractions and activities will be put to the test.  In the tourism industry the front line staff is a very important link between the establishment and its guests.  Not only do they become the face of the establishment but most importantly they also become ambassadors of the city and often guests will  base decisions on where to go and what to do on their input, “said NMBT Marketing Manager, Titus Chuene.

Chuene went on to say that the  race will act as a “refresher course” on the city and its attractions. It  will provide an opportunity for the participants to experience it firsthand, enabling them to confidently respond to visitor queries in future.           

Before embarking on The Travel Quest it was decided to do a trial run and NMBT staff was put to the test. The staff was divided into five teams and told to assemble at the NMBT Head Office premises on a Wednesday morning early July.

Travel Quest organisers, NMBT leisure tourism coordinator, Jonker Fourie and events coordinator, Phrosne Phillips designed the race in such a way that it covered more than 20 attractions scattered throughout Nelson Mandela Bay from Uitenhage to Schoenies, museums to township taverns and many more.  Following the amazing race concept, the route map held clues to the various sites that had to be visited along the way and was interspersed with interesting facts about the city, its heritage and current offerings.

The cross word puzzle used to stagger the teams at the start of the race was not that much of a deterrent and the NMBT teams were soon on their way armed with visitor information guides and maps to help along the way.

“Phrosne and I stood amazed at the speed with which some of our colleagues were able to down glasses of 'amazi' at Njoli Square, laughed Fourie. “Clues such as ‘pitch your tent next to the longest river in Africa’, ‘finding a journey of giraffe on the beachfront’ and ‘meeting Thobeka” (who turned out to be an art piece at the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan Art Museum)’ caused much debate and murmuring amongst the teams,” said Fourie commenting on the difficulty level of the challenges that made up the race.

 The heavy downpour later in the afternoon did nothing to dampen the spirit as teams raced along the beach to a find a lifeguard to collect their next clues.  “Some teams did have a slight difficulty finding the shortest route from Colleen Glen to Uitenhage while the new Uitenhage Science Centre wasn’t the easiest place to find if you don’t quite know what attraction you are looking for” quipped Phillips reflecting back on the event.

Phillips said that getting back to the office after the race was quite an experience as the staff couldn’t stop talking about all the new facts they uncovered and how they were seeing often-visited places in a fresh light. “All the hard work and planning paid off as the dry run went without a hitch and although fun was had by all, we met all our objectives.  We are confident that the Travel Quest scheduled for September will be an ever bigger success” she added.

Chuene said that the Travel Quest race will form part of the bigger Tourism Month plans that will be launched in early August.