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Cape Town Tourism pledges to market tourism offering despite funding uncertainty

The City of Cape Town introduced their new Tourism, Events and Marketing (incorporating Arts & Culture and Strategic Assets) Directorate to the industry at the Cape Town Tourism AGM.

In the wake of an announcement at the Cape Town Tourism AGM that the City of Cape Town will now lead the destination marketing of Cape Town, Cape Town Tourism CEO, Mariette du Toit-Helmbold, assured that her organisation will remain a dynamic industry organisation delivering tourism destination marketing and visitor services in line with its Constitution. Considered by many as a world best example partnership between local government (which appoints Cape Town Tourism to deliver specified services on behalf of the City as outlined in a Service Level Agreement) and the private sector tourism industry, represented through Cape Town Tourism’s close to 2 000 members, she was confident that Cape Town Tourism was the best vehicle to deliver tourism destination marketing and visitor services for Cape Town.

Cape Town Tourism’s ability to navigate the significant changes in the global tourism arena, take advantage of trends in digital marketing and deliver innovative customer centred marketing despite limited funding and tough competition has been lauded by the United Nations World Tourism Organisation. Taleb Rifai, Secretary-General, World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) commended Cape Town Tourism on the role the organisation plays in positioning Cape Town as one of the world’s leading destinations. “Key programmes over the past year, including a new, compelling marketing campaign and a concerted push into social media platforms, have positioned Cape Town Tourism at the forefront of some of the most innovative initiatives in destination marketing,” he says.

The City of Cape Town introduced their new Tourism, Events and Marketing (incorporating Arts & Culture and Strategic Assets) Directorate to the industry at the Cape Town Tourism AGM. The function of the new directorate includes Place Marketing – a department that will, in future, take care of destination marketing at large for the city. Cape Town Tourism will focus on tourism marketing, whilst supporting the directorate with Place Marketing programmes.

Cape Town Tourism’s grant funding was reduced from the budgeted R42 million to R36 million, which in effect means the operating budget has to be cut from R48million to R39,8 million for 2012/2013.

The City’s Service Level Agreement with Cape Town Tourism outlines tourism marketing services required as:

  • Domestic and international tourism marketing, which is defined as promoting Cape Town at agreed and approved marketing exhibitions and markets;
  • Domestic and international trade and media hosting;
  • Online, digital and eMarketing services;
  • Additional tourism marketing activities as requested from time to time (at additional costs to the City).

Mayor Patricia de Lille said; “I am pleased that Cape Town Tourism initiated a series of international campaigns emphasising the broadening of our offering, however, it is clear that a great deal more work needs to be done to further entrench our position in this regard. The City is ready to take the lead in making sure that we leverage our assets to broaden our offering.

Says Du Toit-Helmbold: “Up to now Cape Town Tourism’s destination mandate and the services delivered for the City as outlined in past agreements did not include business, investment and study promotion, even though the tourism marketing strategy and campaign were developed to complement and enhance a broader economic brand and strategy for Cape Town. We have had to make difficult decisions in the past, and we will do so again to ensure that Cape Town Tourism is a well-run organisation that contributes in a real way to position Cape Town as one of the world’s leading tourism destinations.  We are encouraged by the City’s commitment to conclude a three year visitor services and tourism marketing agreement with Cape Town Tourism before June 2013. We are committed to work with the City of Cape Town to co-design our future partnership with the City and agree on Cape Town Tourism’s role and responsibility within the broader Place Marketing agenda of the City. Tourism, the third largest contributor to the global economy, after the automobile and banking sectors, is a sector that really matters. As the world prepares to witness one billion arrivals by the end of 2012, we will never lose sight of the fact that tourism makes a significant contribution to shaping Cape Town’s future and a better life for its citizens. The partnership between tourism and local government must realise growth and opportunities for the tourism industry and those that work in and provide services to the sector.”

The financial statements of Cape Town Tourism, as approved by the Board, were presented at the AGM. Outgoing Chair of the Board, Ian Bartes, commented that the 2011/2012 financial year’s highlights included a total recoupment of the deficit incurred in 2010 for additional deliverables in hosting the 2010 FIFA World Cup and a significant improvement in the company’s liquidity.

Said Bartes: “In addition to the R40m grant funding from the City of Cape Town received for the previous year, the organisation self-generated R5,4m to post a total income of R45,4m. Cape Town Tourism is proud to have increased its member revenue by 8% compared to 2010/2011. On the expense side, the organisation managed through future fit programmes initiated in 2010/2011 to reduce salaries and wages by 3% and increase all other expenses by only 4% compared to the previous year. The total expenses for the current year were R43,2m which is only 1% higher than the previous year.”

Cape Town Tourism reflected on a busy year in which the organization served more than a million visitors through its Visitor Centre network, launched a multi-tiered campaign with National Geographic and had great successes with their digital marketing through initiatives like the hosting of top international travel influencers, or iAmbassadors, and the launch of an innovative campaign which encourages people to ‘road-test’ Cape Town by sending their Facebook profile to the destination. All of these programmes were funded by Cape Town Tourism’s self-generated income in lieu of the City’s funding only confirmed mid-September 2012.

Mirroring the status of Cape Town Tourism’s digital presence; their official website (www.capetown.travel) enjoyed one million visitors in the past year and their Facebook fan page I ¦ Cape Town now boasts more than 250 000 members. The year’s media ROI was R 45 million and a deficit of R 2 million, garnered from special World Cup programmes and much needed infrastructural improvements, was recuperated.

The proposed resolutions, as communicated with members on 2 October 2012, were approved and three new board members were elected by the Cape Town Tourism membership at the AGM. Enver Mally, Jonathan Jacobs and Craig Kensley join the rest of the board as they negotiate solutions to short-term funding challenges and a longer term partnership with the City.

Says Mariette du Toit-Helmbold; “Cape Town Tourism is ready to work with the City on a new destination marketing model for Cape Town. We remain single-minded in our belief that we can help to turn the tide on shrinking demand and seasonality and will continue rolling out cutting edge visitor and tourism destination marketing programmes. Some elements will have to be delayed or reimagined in lieu of our reduced funding and ever changing trends. We will cut our cloth according to our available resources, but we will stay future-minded, never compromising innovation, creativity and excellence. We will improve the balance between “bricks and mortar” and digital visitor service delivery, and focus a lot more on marketing in partnership with the tourism industry and business at large.”

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