This week Cape Town Tourism launched a new ‘Hello Weekend‘ communications campaign at Indaba, to counter the dreaded Seasonality problem the hospitality and tourism industry in our city has in winter.  The object of the campaign is to make Cape Town a year-round destination, in which something is happening 52 weeks a year.

Using a’mini-quiz‘ on the site www.helloweekend.capetown to analyse what type of weekend personality visitors have, suggestions are made for activities that suit each personality type.  Suggestions include:

*   Tastescape; a weekend of sampling Cape cuisine

*  Bros and Brews; a perfect solution for a bachelor weekend or a guy’s get together.

*   Big Spender, a weekend of shopping delights

*   Adrenalin Rush

*   Collectors and Creatives can soak up the city’s art and design scene

*   Just the Two of Us makes for a romantic escape in the Mother City

*   Five Star,

*   Ready, Set, Go

*   Bestie’s Breakaway

*    Greens and Tees

*    Party it Up

*    Out in Cape Town

*   Making Memories.

Thompson Holidays has created packages starting at R3999, which include air travel, accommodation, and car hire for locals, for the period May – 31 July.

Cape Town Tourism Executive Marketing Manager Velma Corcoran says that she and the Cape Town Tourism team look forward to spending their weekend with visitors to Cape Town. ‘Cape Town is the ultimate weekend city all year round but you’ll never do it all in one. Picking a theme is a way to showcase the choice we have on offer, by putting the visitor first. We have worked with a design agency called Infestation to present our weekend solutions in a simple, fun, friendly and shareable way’.

The problem with the winter campaigns which Cape Town Tourism devises each year is that they partner with Thompson Holidays, which benefit large accommodation establishment, and not the many hundreds of guest houses and B&Bs which are members of the tourism body.  Odd is that typical Cape delights such as wine tasting, and the Cape’s strength of craft and design are not included.  One hopes that the hundreds of generous Cape Town and Winelands Winter Restaurant Specials will be communicated to visitors too!

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