It is shocking that the City of Cape Town is trying to mislead the Tourism industry, in stating that ‘Cape Town is indeed becoming a popular year-round destination’, whereas the contrary is true, in that Seasonality is becoming more and more pronounced every winter, not just for the Tourism industry but for all Cape Town and Western Cape businesses too.

The media release ‘Cape Town is a destination of choice even in winter‘, was issued by Garreth Bloor, the City of Cape Town’s Mayoral Committee member for Tourism, Events, and Marketing, via the City’s ‘Integrated Strategic Communication and Branding Department‘, an in-house department.   It is worrying when Councillors seek publicity for themselves, Councillor Bloor following in the footsteps of his predecessor Grant Pascoe, who left the Council when he defected to the ANC, and has disappeared from visibility.  The marketing of Cape Town has been the responsibility of Cape Town Tourism, and information supplied by the city tourism body is liberally used in the media statement. One wonders why Cape Town Tourism did not issue the media statement, or why the City’s Directorate of Tourism, Marketing, and Events was not involved.

The City motivates its positive view about the performance of the Tourism industry in the past few winter month as follows:

1.   Arrivals from Africa and overseas increased

2.  Cape Town’s ‘Big 5’ attractions (Cape Point, V&A Waterfront, Table Mountain Cableway, Kirstenbosch, and Robben Island) ‘all reported positive performance’, but the period reviewed is not defined, and exact numbers are not supplied.

However, the City media statement is clearly written by someone who has no clue of our City’s tourism industry:

1.  ‘Winter‘ is incorrectly defined as running from April to August (its May – August)!

2.  The decrease in Domestic arrivals, by far the largest Tourism group visiting Cape Town, is declining, but is mentioned incidentally and in a different context.

3.  June and July tourism arrivals are not mentioned at all, and were two severely poor tourism months due to heavy rainfall.

4.  Compares apples and pears, by providing statistics of number of visitor to local attractions, using different groups of months for the different attractions.

In a shocking display of PR puffery, and blatantly misleading, the media statement quotes Councillor Bloor as saying: ‘We are heartened by the steady stream of visitors to our shores during the winter months. While the weather tends to send locals indoors, it is heartening to see visitors making their way here to experience what the Mother City has to offer. The upward trend during winter affirms the city’s status as a year-round destination of choice, which is in line with our commitment to creating an opportunity city’.  

It also proudly states the employment figures of the Tourism industry, but the 34500 ‘permanent’ workers figure quoted is almost impossible to define, and one wonders how the City measured this.  Anyone employing staff knows what a constant flux there is in staff resignations and walk-outs, and that departing staff is rarely replaced in winter.

Cape Town Tourism Enver Duminy is quoted as follows in the media statement: ‘Extending trade into winter is key to tourism growth and sustainability in Cape Town. If we can gradually reduce the shoulder of the lower traffic winter months, we will be able to plan and manage costs better. This is as much about our city making a concerted effort to create a remarkable winter offering as it is about individual tourism players believing that a Cape Town winter is well worth promoting’.  

The media statement says that the tourism body is focusing on domestic/local tourists, Namibia, Angola, Nigeria, Turkey, and the United Arab Emirates ‘as key tactical markets to address the issue of seasonality’!   The USA and BRICS countries Brazil, India, and China, but excluding Russia, will also be targeted.  None of these countries have been visible in any large tourism numbers, the Ebola scare in African countries, and the Department of Home Affair’s Immigration Regulations affecting countries like India and China in particular dampening tourism and leading to cancellations.

One wonders what the City of Cape Town intended with this nonsense media statement, and who it is that they are trying to fool. Every Tourism business, whether large or small, has its own statistics, and will recognise how misleading the Seasonality information is.

Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio: www.whalecottage.com  Tel (021) 433-2100, Twitter:@WhaleCottage  Facebook:  click here