CALVYN Gilfellan has been appointed ceo of Cape Town Routes Unlimited (CTRU), the official marketing organisation of the Western Cape and Cape Town. Gilfellan had been acting ceo for the past year. 

Prior to joining CTRU in 2004 as executive manager: tourism operations, he was director of tourism in Mpumalanga. He holds a master’s degree in geography and is a doctoral candidate at the University of the Western Cape. He was previously a lecturer in socio-economic geography at UWC.

The CTRU board also announced the appointments of two executive managers: Itumeleng Pooe, former ceo of the Franschhoek Valley Wine Tourism Association, and David Frandsen, former CTRU marketing manager. Respectively, they will be responsible for two new focused marketing channels covering the domestic, African, Middle Eastern and Asian markets; and the wider international market (Europe, North- and South America).

CTRU is to launch a series of domestic and international marketing campaigns. A R6m six-month domestic tourism programme targeting Gauteng kicks off soon. Developed by TBWA-Hunt-Lascaris, it will involve intensive advertising in mainstream print and electronic media and an experiential campaign involving virtual Cape cafés in shopping malls.       CTRU is also participating in international travel shows in Europe, the Middle East and Australia. It is also involved in a joint marketing agreement with leading UK-based travel operator, lastminute.com, that digitally targets travellers from the UK, US and Germany.  Initiated earlier this year and scheduled to continue until May, the online campaign garnered more than 1,4m page impressions in just 44 days.

CTRU board chairman, George Uriesi, said with an improved infrastructure and experienced management in place, his board had brought continuity to CTRU and had put the disruptions of the past behind it. CTRU’s future became uncertain last year when the City of Cape Town gave notice it would withdraw its joint funding of the body. “The organisation has been re-engineered and is now focused exclusively on marketing the Western Cape while outsourcing all non-core activities. We have a fully functioning and effective organisation in place. We have aligned ourselves with world-class service providers and have taken decisive and inventive steps to maximise our limited spend. We are already achieving encouraging results. While CTRU continues to be funded by the provincial government of the Western Cape, we are still to finalise our financial relationship with the City of Cape Town. However, we remain confident that, given the significant progress we have made, the city will see the value of continuing to invest in CTRU,” said Uriesi.