Table Mountain Nature Seven Wonders

DAVE MARRS: Mountain is now officially, like, totally awesome
Capetonians have been droning on about how wonderful their lump of rock is for as long as you can remember


SO TABLE Mountain is one of the New Seven Wonders of Nature. But you already knew that, because Capetonians have been droning on about how wonderful their lump of rock is for as long as you can remember. I’m told even the muggers that haunt the slopes above the city are awful when experienced in their natural habitat.


So what’s with all the cynicism I’m picking up over the new seven wonders of nature concept? Some are going so far as to imply it’s nothing more than a moneymaking racket for the Swiss operators of new7wonders.com, which ran the competition.

Table Mountain -Seven Wonder of the World

Sure, they stand to make millions of dollars, given that they get a cut from each of the billion or more SMSes that were sent during the voting stage, just as they made millions when a mere 100-million votes were cast in their New Seven Manmade Wonders competition in 2007. Respect for that: they thought of it first, and anyone who can persuade nations to fight among themselves to get their populations to pay you for the privilege of voting for features of their natural environment — and then charge millions more for use of the New Seven Wonders brand in perpetuity — deserves every cent. I have several Nigerian e-mail penpals who are standing by to transfer money to your bank account in recognition of the sheer genius of it. All they need is your PIN.


Others question the credibility of the top seven list, given that it’s based on a worldwide poll with no limit to the number of times an individual — or algorithm — can vote. Indeed, it does seem a little odd that another moderately famous lump of African rock popularly known as Mount Kilimanjaro hasn’t made the top seven. And good luck trying to persuade tourists to pay good money to kick back and sip a cocktail while watching the sun set over the Puerto Princesa Underground River, which I believe is buried somewhere in the Philippines.


But no matter. If the Tanzanians and Kenyans were snoozing while the rest of the world was installing fibreoptic cable and cellular base stations and creating a consumer society, that’s their loss. The ever-industrious Vietnamese worked their thumbs to the bone over the past week SMS-ing their votes for the inclusion of Halong Bay among the magical seven. According to the Financial Times, Vietnam’s central bank even sent out an urgent communique to all of the country’s financial institutions urging them to make sure their employees voted. One bank set its drones a target of 600 SMSes each, with a vague promise to reimburse the costs.


It worked: Halong Bay is among the new seven natural wonders of the world and Thailand’s Phang Nga Bay (home to Ko Tapu, better known as James Bond Island) is not, although you’d have to be an amateur geologist to distinguish one cluster of pointy islands from the other. It worked the other way, too — the Dead Sea failed to make the grade, despite the high percentage of Israelis with access to cellphones and the internet, partly because of a concerted campaign by Palestinian sympathisers to persuade the world not to boost the Israeli tourism industry.


Still, such worldwide recognition of Table Mountain’s wonderfulness is not to be sneezed at. Tourism research company Grant Thornton has calculated that making the top seven in the list will increase the number of tourists visiting Cape Town by at least 20%. And since about 70% of them are expected to be foreigners, that could translate to R1,4bn a year in extra revenue over five years.


So lay off Cape Town mayor Patricia de Lille and Western Cape Premier Helen Zille, who have copped a bit of criticism for participating so enthusiastically in the campaign to ensure The Mountain cracked the top seven. According to Grant Thornton, the number of visitors to Petra in Jordan increased by more than 60%, and to Christ the Redeemer in Brazil by 30%, after they were included among the new man-made wonders, so the promised increase in tourism to Cape Town is more than a pipe dream.


Besides, they’re both from Cape Town, and for a Capetonian the thought of Table Mountain not being considered among the top seven natural wonders of the world is as preposterous as Mount Everest being left off the list. Oh wait, it was.


• Marrs is Cape Editor.


Source : http://www.businessday.co.za
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