Cape Town Tourism (CTT) is preparing for a busy six months, during which it will promote a winter marketing campaign, embark on an international marketing campaign, run an online campaign, roll out an online hub, collaborate with Johannesburg and Durban to promote a Three Cities Alliance and participate at Indaba, South Africa’s tourism showcase, amongst other things.

This follows a successful summer season during which tourism to the city increased by 6% to 1,8 million tourists between January and March 2012. This included a 14% increase in international tourism totalling 229 283 arrivals; a 4% growth in domestic tourism to 870 679 visitors; and a 20% hike in regional tourism totalling 18 089 visitors. During this period, visitor numbers to Table Mountain were up 23%; Cape Point received 11% more visitors and the V&A Waterfront 3% more. In the past six months, visitors to CTT’s website grew by 22% to 505 500; the number of its Facebook fans grew by 12% to 20 433 and its Twitter followers shot up 22% to 2 000 people.

CTT Executive Marketing Manager, Velma Corcoran, says visitors over the next six months will be encouraged to “Discover why Cape Town warms up in winter”. The winter campaign will focus on good value and special offers, such as weekend packages and discounts.

This month, CTT embarked on an international marketing campaign with National Geographic that will be seen in 435 million homes in 173 countries, and online by 20 million viewers a month. The city in April hosted the Digital Nomad, whose blogs about the city reached 2,8 million people worldwide. Advertorial will appear in National Geographic special editions India, Australia, the USA and China between July and December. Online city guides will be produced and an hour-long documentary will be broadcast between December 2012 and June 2013 to reach 11,9 million viewers in the UK, 3,9 million in Germany, 7,4 million in The Netherlands and 4 million in Africa.

The online campaign will see CTT host the world’s top travel bloggers who together will reach 123 000 people online.

CTT will also roll out the Cape Town Toolkit, an online marketing hub for members, the travel trade and media to help them sell the destination.

Corcoran said during the past six months CTT had successfully launched its new “Unexpected Cape Town” urban-focused campaign tagged as “You don’t need a holiday, you need Cape Town”. This included the publication of an events calendar, the hosting of key media, fly-in packages around events, new airport branding and a revamped website.