Cape Town and the Western Cape has started to put into practice its newly focused strategy to form agreements with international marketing companies to represent the city and province as a tourism destination in its core tourism markets, all year round. Meetings were held with a range of British, German, Dutch, French and American marketing companies at this year’s Tourism Indaba in Durban (10 – 13 May 2008), to prepare the way for joint marketing initiatives in the area of in-market representation for Cape Town and the Western Cape.

Says Calvyn Gilfellan, Chief Executive of Cape Town Routes Unlimited, the official tourism destination marketing organisation for Cape Town and the Western Cape: “In the run-up to the 2010 FIFA World Cup, it is essential that we get the best value for our marketing buck. Through agreements with in-market marketing representatives, who know these core markets by heart, their language and culture, we can help ensure that we remain a top-of-mind destination in those markets - all year round. In essence, we are partnering with them for their expertise in these markets.

“The next step would be to finalise our budget and call for proposals to appoint in-market marketing representatives in the different markets. Following that, we will develop 12-month business plans with our in-market marketing representatives, and equip them with the latest information on Cape Town and the Western Cape’s complete tourism offering,” Gilfellan said.

Discussions around the joint marketing initiatives between Cape Town and the Western Cape, and some of the companies already started at the World Travel Market in London, United Kingdom, last year and at the ITB travel show in Berlin, Germany, this year. The strategy to have agreements with in-market marketing representatives leans very heavily on extensive public relations, trade marketing and consumer activation.

The Cape Town and Western Cape tourism industry exhibited as a unified, well co-ordinated and integrated group at Indaba and once again received huge interest. It was especially the Cape Town and Western Cape stand’s rather unusual, but quite striking three-dimensional billboard image of Table Mountain that had Indaba visitors in awe. Super hip free-style footballers from Langa in Cape Town, Chris Njokwana and Mzukisi Madela, entertained guests, as well as visitors to the stand, with their fancy footwork and football tricks.

The Tourism Indaba is the largest tourism marketing event on the African calendar, showcasing the widest variety of Southern Africa's tourism products, and attracting travel trade and media from across the world. Indaba 2008 was attended by 13 275 delegates, up 4.1% from last year’s figures, according to SA Tourism.

At Indaba, Cape Town was announced as Africa’s leading destination by the prestigious World Travel Awards, endorsing the city’s status as a world-class tourism destination.

Cape Town Executive Deputy Mayor Grant Haskin accepted this top global tourism industry award on behalf of Cape Town and all its partners. “This award recognises the tireless work of a team, striving towards one objective – Cape Town as the top global travel destination because of our superb products that are presented in a variety of perspectives and in a responsible manner, producing tourist ambassadors the world over. This is the best legacy we can leave for Capetonians before, and after the 2010 FIFA Soccer World Cup,” he said.

Together with Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal, Cape Town and the Western Cape formalized an agreement to launch a state-of-the-art electronic destination management system at Indaba. The system, demonstrated to town representatives at Indaba, will allow tourists to book air tickets to major centres, accommodation, tours, car rental and eventually even restaurants and movie tickets from anywhere in the world. Mpumalanga will join the group of provinces at the end of the month.

As part of the roll-out of the destination management system, details of a joint partnership with Microsoft were discussed with representatives of the software giant at Indaba. The aim of the partnership is to provide emerging tourism entrepreneurs with websites and computer training. The details of this partnership will be finalised by the end of June this year.

Cape Town and the Western Cape was also invited to address the SA Tourism E-Business Seminar at Indaba on real-time electronic bookings.

A further Indaba highlight was the Cape Town and Western Cape Trade and Media Networking Lunch on Saturday, 10 May 2008. The Hilton Hotel’s banquet hall was jam-packed as trade and media from around the world gathered for an in-depth update on the city and province’s 2010 preparations.

The event also saw the launch of the Cape Town and Western Cape Tourism Ambassador Programme. Radio personality Nigel Pierce, Deputy Mayor Haskin and a group of other Western Cape personalities pledged their personal and professional support to the continued promotion of Cape Town and the Western Cape as a premier year-round tourism destination, as well as tourism awareness in general.