Cape Town Tourism has been plunged into survival mode again after the City of Cape Town reneged on an earlier commitment to fund it for the next three years. 
Instead, the City recently decided to sign only a one-year service-level agreement with CTT, which means the organisation again has no long-term financial backing. Its funding is only secured on an annual basis, as has been the case for the past six years, confirms outgoing CTT CEO, Mariëtte du Toit-Helmbold. The implication, she says, is that CTT cannot enter into long-term commercial partnerships and marketing agreements, which hampers its effectiveness as the city’s tourism marketing agency.
Du Toit-Helmbold says she doesn’t know why the city council has backed down from its earlier commitment but doesn’t believe the reason is “sinister”.  She suspects the City may want to see how effectively its own tourism directorate and CTT can work together before committing itself to supporting CTT in the long-term. 
She believes no other tourism marketing agency worldwide would be prepared to work on such a basis, especially in the light of the return on investment delivered: “Our recent ‘LoveCapeTown’ campaign delivered a 20:1 return on investment on a budget of R250 000.” Among many accolades, CTT was recently awarded a Cannes Golden Lion for its ‘Take Your Facebook Profile to Cape Town’ social media campaign; was named one of the world's top-20 and Africa’s most influential tourist boards and online DMOs; was included in the World Travel Market’s ‘White Paper for Best Practice in Digital Marketing’ last year; while the UNWTO in 2012 recognised it as a ‘world best practice tourism organisational model’.
She says the CTT board will do its best to convince the city to agree to long-term funding in future to ensure CTT’s financial stability and assist in long-term planning and the clinching of more viable commercial agreements.
Meanwhile, an alternative commercial strategy already being pursued is to lessen CTT’s reliance on the city coffers by increasing its self-generated funds. Du Toit-Helmbold says, in the last financial CTT year generated R7m of its own funds, despite the fact that its budget was slashed by R8m by the City.
She says CTT’s commercial strategy is to increase its self-generated funds through capital investments, commercial partnerships, monetising its web platforms and commercialising its memberships. For example, by paying higher membership fees, ‘Gold’ members are guaranteed preferential marketing platforms, preferential listings and representation at trade and road shows and preferred partnerships and joint marketing ventures.  
Another cost-cutting strategy is to digitise CTT’s visitor services in line with global trends. Du Toit-Helmbold says visitor centres are expensive to operate. Many don’t receive enough visitors to justify their staffing and operational costs. Consequently, three have already been closed. Instead, a mobile unit has been launched that is deployed at events and attractions. She says CTT would like to invest in more such units to service conferences and events.  Meanwhile, a visitor services mobile phone App is on hold pending further funding.