THE worldwide credit crunch has presented the Western Cape with an opportunity to take a fresh look at destination marketing opportunities, says Itumeleng Pooe, executive manager international & domestic marketing at Cape Town Routes Unlimited (CTRU).
 
She told a pre-summer season media briefing in Cape Town, the Cape in 2009 would continue to focus on its core international markets - the UK, Germany, the Netherlands and Namibia – and finalise its preparations for 2010 to ensure destination exposure and repeat visitors.
 
Responding to criticism that CTRU needed to be more aggressive and less reactive in its international marketing, David Frandsen, executive manager marketing & Cape Town Convention Bureau, said the organization was hamstrung by budget constraints and couldn’t afford big billboard advertising abroad. Its strategy was to focus on below-the-line advertising and interaction/joint marketing with the travel trade in core markets. It aimed at drawing tourism during the slower months March to September, distribute tourism throughout the province and encourage visitors to stay longer and spend more.
 
He said marketing would further rely heavily on the region’s growing success as a MICE (meetings, incentives, conferences, exhibitions) destination. He said the Cape Town Convention Bureau had secured a record nine association meetings for the period 2009 to 2018. Next year alone, 19 international associations were scheduled to convene in Cape Town, injecting an estimated R300m into the regional economy. A particular major coup was a global incentive buyers conference due to take place in Cape Town in 2010, because each incentive tourist was expected to spend R10 000 per day during their stay.
 
Pooe said the Cape would also invest more in its domestic market, which represents two-thirds of its tourism arrivals. Most of the province’s 3.2m annual domestic trips originate from within the province itself.  She said domestic marketing campaigns would be beefed up especially in the shoulder season and winter months. “We are going to talk to our core domestic markets – Gauteng, Eastern Cape and KZN – more directly and more consistently, exhibit at different lifestyle/consumer shows and use events to lengthen stays,” she said.