Cape Town Tourism (CTT) is boosting its self-generated income by developing its own retail range and launching a ‘City Card’ for visitors and locals that is linked to the city's new public transport system.
Making the announcement at the association's recent AGM, CEO Mariëtte du Toit-Helmbold, said other focus areas for the future were:
• Repositioning Cape Town's brand to ensure it remained relevant after the World Cup.
• Media and trade relations in new markets such as South America and the Far East.
• Continued investment and keeping up with global trends in online and mobile tools as 70% of travel decisions and bookings were now made online. CTT is hosting the third annual E-Tourism Africa summit in Cape Town on October 25 and 26.
• Developing Phase Two of a new data management system that will result in a more effective booking system. Phase One is already in place.
• Developing an events strategy in co-operation with the Cape Town municipality to attract more key events during the low season.
She appealed to the city's private and public sectors to find creative, innovative techniques to market the city, stressing that the success of the World Cup needed to be followed up with visible, accessible offers that appealed to a recession-battered world. She warned that already attention was shifting away from SA to Brazil, the World Cup host in 2014.
CTT Chairman, Ian Bartes, said by 2020 Cape Town wanted to be Africa's top city and among the top ten in the world to visit, live, work, study and invest in. CTT's vision was to double the economic impact of tourism on the city by 2020.
He said CTT's task during the next three years would be to maximise the long-term benefits created by the World Cup while addressing seasonality through events and business tourism. The CTT Board would focus on developing a broader strategy for the city that would guide future tourism development and marketing.
He stressed that CTT needed to increase its self-generated income because its funding from the Cape Town City Council had been cut from R39m in 2009/10 to R37m for 2010/11. He said future self-generated income growth would be used to increase marketing and investment in infrastructure and skills development. Funding for visitor services would be maintained but operating costs would be reduced through innovative business systems, technology, partnerships and increased commercial income.
The AGM re-elected four members of the current board: Pierre du Plessis, Bulelwa Makalima-Ngewana, Claus Tworeck and Susanne Faussner-Ringer, as well as new member, Sarah Struys from Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden.
Cape Town Tourism launches post-World Cup action plan
Cape Town Tourism launches post-World Cup action plan
13 Oct 2010 - by Hilka Birns
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The Marico River in Madikwe.
Yesterday