CAPE Town Tourism (CTT) has announced its new marketing strategy for the city.
  “Our vision is that by 2020, Cape Town will be celebrated as one of the top 10 most desirable and iconic tourism destinations in the world, this status being reflected in the economic wellbeing of the people of our great city,” CTT ceo, Mariëtte du Toit-Helmbold, told more than 600 members of the association at its 4th AGM last week.
 
She said CTT planned to focus on the most high-yield market segments that would deliver year-round business.
 
CTT would work with Cape Town Routes Unlimited, the provincial marketer, on an “Extended Stay” campaign to attract more events and business tourism, convert it to leisure tourism and entice visitors to stay longer.
 
In the leisure market, the focus internationally would be on the so-called “Next Stop South Africa” and “Wanderlusters”, predominantly from the UK, Germany, Netherlands and the USA. Regionally, CTT would focus on Namibia, Kenya and Nigeria. Domestically, it would focus on Gauteng, the Eastern Cape and the Western Cape regions.
 
Capetonians would be mobilised to become tourists and ambassadors themselves. “Cape Town’s Day” - launched on September 27 when CTT gave away hundreds of tickets to local attractions - would become an annual event.
 
To maximize limited resources of R25.9m (R24.7m from the City of Cape Town and R1.2m self-generated), CTT was launching a Challenge Fund to encourage joint marketing agreements with industry and other stakeholders.
 
CTT would use the 2010 FIFA World Cup to position Cape Town as the party and lifestyle capital of the event and would stage a series of events in its run-up.
 
- Two new members elected to the CTT Board are: Winchester Mansions md, Nils Heckscher; and Table Mountain Aerial Mountain Cableway md, Sabine Lehman.

Cape Town Tourism’s action plan:

Already actioned:
- Events joint marketing agreements commenced in August with the Lipton Challenge. Similar agreements are being concluded with all other major events like the Volvo Ocean Race, Design Indaba and the Cape Town Jazz Festival.
- A local area events strategy has been concluded with a dedicated fund to support local area events with PR and marketing.  The first will be the Khayelitsha Festival. CTT and the Khayelitsha Business Forum will use this event to kick-start a community tourism marketing initiative, a new tourism route and promotional material under the banner of Yiphile eKhayelitsha, which means Khayelitsha – Live It!

October 2008: 
- A Challenge Fund to support joint marketing projects with industry.
- A new guest relations and PR unit will be in place with the first campaign in November 2008.
- Dedicated SMME marketing support and training sessions to start.
- eMarketing programmes with the launch of a new dedicated eMarketing unit. Watch out for Cape Town on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

November 2008:
- The establishment of a Cape Town Marketing Toolkit, which the tourism industry can use to sell Cape Town. It will include footage, images, posters and a PowerPoint presentation with updated information on Cape Town, 2010, tourism in general and latest statistics.
- Improved coordination of business tourism activities together with the Cape Town Convention Bureau of CTRU.

December 2008:
- A new dedicated and interactive Cape Town website with user-generated content. The new Cape Town Tourism domain is http://www.capetown.travel 

Early 2009:
- A visitor loyalty programme with a dedicated online visitor newsletter.
- A new data management system.

Mid-2009:
- An integrated booking system.