While Cape Town’s arrivals for the first quarter are up on last year’s figures, keeping figures up during the off-season has been an ongoing challenge, says Enver Duminy, CEO of Cape Town Tourism. Cape Town Tourism is using its media hosting strategy and other marketing initiatives including short-term measures to maximise domestic tourism opportunities to address this challenge. Duminy says an extensive international media hosting strategy was ongoing with more focus on selling Cape Town’s winter months activities.

“International media representatives are welcomed to the city and provided with tours and other experiences as well as accommodation on occasion, leading to international media coverage. It’s imperative to develop those media friendships,” he says. “Trade shows are also increasingly being used to market the destination to operators and to highlight low season activities.

 “Seasonality is an ongoing challenge, and while we are learning better ways of addressing it, we have our work cut out for us in seeing this through,” says Duminy. “No doubt the international challenge is harder to address as visitors in the Northern hemisphere show a preference for travelling regionally during their summer – our low season. A further challenge is that international flights can take 30 hours from some destinations.”

Duminy argues that more direct flights to the city with increased capacity will bring change “The exchange rate certainly makes Cape Town an attractive prospect for international visitors.”

As a destination, says Duminy, the goal must be to present a city that’s vibrant and exciting all year round with plenty of activities and experiences. “The milder weather can be worked to our advantage but we must provide exposure of the unique experiences that can be had over our winter months.”

In this regard, Cape Town Tourism leads the ‘Cape 365’ task team, along with other members – Fedhasa WC, Accelerate Cape Town, City of Cape Town and Wesgro. “Our role is to facilitate and promote alignment between our organisations, while ensuring that our collective tactics are focused on how best to address seasonality through innovative programmes and initiatives,” he says.

Duminy reiterates that it is not just initiatives by Cape Town Tourism that will bring change but the collaborative approach that has been taken to reinvent the city during the traditional off-peak period.

“Reinvention needn’t mean a huge investment, it can be as simple as a website revamp, a change in branding or adding something small that offers additional value to international visitors,” he says. “Partnering with other tourism businesses to add value also has great potential. Ultimately, we are here as an industry made up of independent companies with the common goal of treating visitors to amazing experiences that have them telling their friends to come here and to revisit themselves.”

He says innovation, whilst a broad concept, is not simply a buzzword in Cape Town. “It’s a necessary strategy to ensure that a business offering continuously builds on to a strong foundation. It’s about understanding that what works in high season may not work in low season, so innovation can aid in creating the bridge between seasons. Indeed, some opportunities may even work better during the low season, such as winter sports-related tourism.”

Duminy says an example of reinvention in the city that is now attracting even more international visitors than before is the Boomslang Aerial Treetop Canopy Walkway at Kirstenbosch.

Also Robben Island Museum is currently seeking fresh approaches to their offering in a bid to grab the international market.

“This has included expanding the fleet of ferries by partnering with Waterfront Charters and making use of their six medium- and large-sized boats,” he says. “Since they have done this, there have been no complaints about ferry delays and the like. Future plans include working on improving their narrative to do justice to their multi-layered cultural landscape; planning for a 200-seat restaurant; a state-of-the-art visitor information centre; training of tour guides; developing tours of different lengths as well as bicycle tours on the island.”

Also the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa (Zeitz MOCAA) is already generating huge international interest prior to opening, says Duminy. “It is set to be a jewel in Africa’s design crown upon launching – and this from a property that was essentially dormant before redevelopment.”

He says Zeitz MOCAA will be a hook to get people to explore the City Bowl and V&A Waterfront.

“International visitors have expressed an interest in the opportunities the city offers those who pursue an active lifestyle and we are already seeing more tours catering for this, such as the Run Cape Town tour, cycling township tours and hiking tours. Sharks are more present in low season for those who want to tick shark-cage diving off their bucket lists, and there are also surfing competitions during low season. All of these are being marketed to the international market as part of our strategy to draw them here during the winter months.”