Cape Town Tourism is negotiating a marketing partnership with a major gateway US city and with another city in Turkey, which it hopes will boost tourism from these growing markets, says CEO, Enver Duminy.

Speaking at a tourism and hospitality event in Cape Town on March 31, Duminy declined to name the cities because negotiations are still in the initial stages. He said the aim was to establish partnerships that would include trade exchanges and marketing collaboration that would allow each party to piggyback on the other’s market presence. He said CTT was hoping for a launch-pad into the US and Turkey, while the partner cities were looking for gateways into Africa. Duminy expects the agreements to be concluded within in the next six months.

Innovation was the underlying theme of 10 trends in tourism marketing spelled out by Duminy during the event. He referred to best practice tourism marketing examples from abroad:

• Craft marketing content that tells stories, not sells.
• Create opportunities for visitors to become locals by enabling them to immerse themselves in local communities and local experiences.
• Optimise online channels for three-screen viewing; meaning marketing content is accessible on desktop/laptop, tablet and mobile platforms.
• Provide inspiration before information through strong visual impact in advertising.
• Facilitate storytelling through influencers such as celebrities, actors and bloggers who become brand ambassadors.
• Value quality rather than quantity in social media campaigns as people are inundated with online messages.
• Place the destination first and the destination marketing organisation second.
• Truly understand that they can’t please everybody.
• Trial, refine and trial again to keep pace with a constantly changing and instantaneous world.
• Collaborate rather than compete with other destinations, an example being the Three Cities Alliance between Cape Town, Durban and Johannesburg.

Duminy said for Cape Town Tourism, these trends meant it must be brave and take risks, but keep the messages simple and maintain a clear focus on what it wanted to achieve with its marketing efforts and how it could measure its success.