Towards the end of April 2016, managing director of the Table Mountain Aerial Cableway – Sabine Lehmann – steps down after 18 years at the iconic attraction. Having worked with her over the past six years, Flow’s Cape Town team sat down with Sabine for a heart-to-heart about her tenure.
“I started at the cableway on 1 August 1998, which is actually six months after the new cable car (now almost 20 years old) was built ... I mean, nobody thinks they’re going to be anywhere for 18 years!”
Sabine spent seven years overseas before returning to South Africa. Having worked as a tour guide previously, she had travelled in the old cable car, so coming home to the new “world-classness” that was on offer – an amazing new building and cable car – was very exciting for her.
“But what drew me and still draws me, is our iconic mountain. It’s almost not about the cable car. It’s more about this beautiful space that you work in that continues to make you happy every day.”
And despite seeing the views from the summit every day, Sabine never tires of the beautiful vista 18 years later. She adds, “The longer you’re here, the more you see, the less bored you are. You see little details that other people don’t see. You notice that the flowers that are usually out in April are now out in May, or that it’s drier than usual.”
Other changes Sabine has noted over the years include the growth in tourism, particularly in uptake from domestic South African visitors. After the first major cableway upgrade in 1998, they were averaging more than 600 000 visitors a year – double what they did with the old cable car.
She says that while queues have shortened they remain busy in December, and this year they reached her personal target of one million visitors in a year.
“I remember what the queues looked like 18 years ago in December ... it’s almost 80% South African now. To me, that has been a real joy, to see South Africans want to come up here and see Table Mountain, and become part of what we offer.”
Sabine acknowledges that this figure can be attributed to a change in the nature of tourism, but strongly feels she has had a lot to do with it, too. When she became MD nine years ago she made it an action point to attract locals.
She explains, “No tourist attraction can and should base themselves on international visitors. You have to be relevant to locals, speak to locals, and you have to be a desirable place for domestic visitors to visit. Tourists want to go where domestic visitors go and domestic visitors want to go to something world-class, so the two interplay.”
With a 45% average of local visitors throughout the year and almost 80% during school holidays, Sabine suggests to local tourist-orientated business owners that they build their business around the domestic travel market, because they have no control over international incidents such as the Ebola outbreak, ash clouds, visa issues and 9/11. “If you can survive on local visitors, international tourists are the cream on the cake.”
And what can Sabine take away after nine years as MD of one of the New7Wonders of Nature? The answer is two-fold: “You have to know yourself and manage yourself. Manage your own stress levels, how you interact with people, how you present yourself to people – that was a huge lesson for me in the first year of working here.
“You can only do the job through people. You need to have good people who understand the vision and mission and the brand, and who believe in the product and who get it – and who also love the mountain. I genuinely believe we’ve got that here.”
In closing, Sabine jokes, “After 18 years the only thing that frustrates me is the damn wind which you cannot predict or control – it still messes us around!”
Watch more of Sabine’s interview, which was screened at the launch of the new Wi-Fi Lounge at the cableway:
Sabine is taking some time off to travel with her husband – also of 18 years – before taking on her new role as chief operations officer at the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa at the Waterfront in Cape Town.
On behalf of Flow, we wish her the very best as she embarks on an exciting new challenge!