Despite Cape Town’s year as World Design Capital 2014 having come to an end, its design legacy lives on, not only with design projects created for last year’s event, but with future design projects too.
Cape Town Tourism CEO Enver Duminy punts the legacy of World Design Capital 2014 (both are funded by the City Continue reading →
Whilst our tourism authorities and wine producers are actively chasing the BRICS markets, and thereby neglecting the traditional source markets of the UK, USA and Europe in their marketing, it was a welcome surprise to read in the past week that German tourists are loving South Africa as a tourism destination, as well as enjoying drinking its wines.
Cape Business News reported that the number of German tourists increased by 10% between January and November 2011 to reach 211000, Minister of Tourism Marthinus van Schalkwyk stating that Germany is the third largest tourism source country, ‘contributing 9% of GDP through tourist spend’. The Minister also said that 40 % of the German visitors had been to South Africa before, a high repeat visitor number and ‘testifies to the attractiveness of our destination’.
The Minister was speaking at the 46th ITB (Internationale Tourismusbörse), the world’s largest travel trade show with 170000 leisure visitors and 108000 trade visitors exposed to 10000 exhibitors from around the world over a five day period. He added that the German tourist market ‘is one of the most valuable in the world’. German tourists are increasingly price sensitive in their choice of travel destination, and seek meaningful holiday experiences, in not only seeing beautiful scenery, but to also leave a lasting legacy through their visit. SA Tourism is working hard at marketing our country in Germany, having signed 17 joint marketing agreements with all the top German tour operators, and trained more than 2000 trade operators to encourage sales.
At ITB a number of tourism trends were evident, reports Cape Town Tourism, including:
* International travellers are taking shorter holiday trips, for nine days on average.
* ‘Germany is the most economically optimistic country in the Eurozone and German travelers (sic) are positive in their travel prospects’, says the oddly worded media release. Given zero growth in the UK travel market, Germany may overtake the UK as South Africa’s major source market this year.
* ‘Travel bloggers are gaining recognition as one of the most credible sources of online travel information’, and the organisation writes that it will host the four most influential international travel bloggers later this year.
* Half of all bookings are made on-line, with travel agents making up less than one-third
The Drink Tank reported last week that South African wine exports to Germany reached the number one slot in January, for the first time overtaking the UK market. South African wine exports to Germany reached 81 million litres, a 13 % increase, now slightly ahead of the UK’s 80,9 million litres. UK wine imports dropped by 23 % internationally in the past year. China showed the largest increase in South African wine sales, by 17% in total, and by 66% in bottle sales, and has reached the 10th position in wine imports. South African wine sales to Kenya and Nigeria are also showing good growth. Bulk wine imports (for bottling in the import country, usually to save transport costs) have increased generally, by 19% in Germany, and by 91% to Denmark, 56% to Sweden, and 8% to UK. South African bottle exports have decreased across the board, with the UK showing the sharpest decline of 42%, even though it remains in top position. We wrote about Oldenburg Wines from Stellenbosch, and their popularity in Oldenburg Germany, recently.
Germany is the strongest European country and traditional tourism source market economically, and we would like to encourage SA Tourism to increase its marketing spend in this valuable tourism source market, given its above average tourism growth, and linked South African wine drinking, based on the wine estates and brands they experience on their South African holidays.
Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio: www.whalecottage.com Twitter:@WhaleCottage
Earlier this week I was at the Civic Centre, and on a whim decided to try out the new MyCiTi bus system, with the Civic Centre bus terminal close by. Being a tourist in my own city, I was surprised at how well the new public transport system works, connecting the city centre, the Waterfront, Gardens, Table View, and the airport.
Information about the stops is not easy to find at the Civic Centre terminal, with a board outside showing a map, but not indicating the route or providing any information. I saw staff in a smart uniform, and they explained that I could travel all the way to the Waterfront for a mere R5. There is no hop-on, hop-off facility, so if one makes an in-between stop, one pays a further R5. The prices of the trips are exceptional good value, with the trip to Table View from the Waterfront costing only R10, even if one has to change buses at the Civic Centre terminal. The cost to get to the airport from the Civic Centre is R50, and is set to increase to R53 on 1 July, as reported on Twitter. No information is provided proactively, and when I asked for a brochure or map at the Ticket office, I received a tabloid-size outdated May issue of ‘Let’s go MYCITI’.
The newspaper reports that a R20 Smartcard is planned, which will allow one to load ‘airtime’ to the card, at a 2,5% fee. One can also buy booklets of tickets. One wonders if the City will make its money back, at such low prices, the buses having about 10 passengers on each of the two trips I did. Fellow passengers told me that the Table View route was well supported, and here the service could be making good money. 
The Civic Centre terminal station is massive, and has beautiful murals produced by local artists, including Arelen Amaler-Raviv, Hannes Bernard, Tony Coetzee, David Hlongwane, Sanjin Muftic, Alan Munro,, Hannah Williams and Mark Hennig.
While waiting for the Waterfront bus to arrive, I asked a staff member more questions – one can buy the return ticket on the bus, as there is no ticket office in the Waterfront, or at the other stops. The buses depart every 20 minutes. It takes 20 minutes to get from the Civic Centre to the Waterfront. What I didn’t ask, but discovered, is that the staff do not announce the stops – one must look at the road signs (Loop Street, V&A Waterfront), or the name on the terminal buildings (Granger Bay, Stadium) to know where to get off, a potential problem for tourists. 
As a tourist, one would like to photograph Table Mountain, the Stadium, the Waterfront and other landmarks of the city. Our bus to the Waterfront had dirty windows, which would have spoilt the photographs. The windows of our return bus were spotlessly clean.
The overall impression was of cleanliness, efficiency, and friendliness. The buses run smoothly and quietly, quickly left each station where they had to stop, yet no apology was provided for the 20 minute lateness of the 14h46 Waterfront bus to the Civic Centre. Comment was made by some passengers about the driver going through a red traffic light, hardly what a City of Cape Town employee should be doing, given that their colleagues are traffic police. Two MyCiTi buses were involved in collisions on the Table View route earlier this month. It is unclear where one should park if one wanted to go to Cape Town International, but parking near the Stadium terminal would be a good idea, with a bus change at the Civic Centre, at no extra charge.
The buses run from 5h45 from Table View, and from 6h00 in the city on weekdays, and an hour later on Saturdays, and 2 hours later on Sundays. Buses run until 21h00 on the Table View route, and until 22h00 in the city, on all days of the week. Buses run every 20 minutes, but on the Table View route they run every 10 minutes in peak morning and afternoon traffic times. A sign on the bus says that bicycles are allowed on the bus.
The My CiTi bus route is to be expanded next year, to include Hout Bay, Camps Bay, the Atlantic Seaboard, Salt River, Woodstock, Walmer Estate, Oranjezicht, Tamboerskloof, Vredehoek and Bo Kaap. At a later stage the route will extend to Atlantis, Du Noon, Jo Slovo Park, Montague Gardens and Melkbosstrand. Township routes to Khayelitsha and Gugulethu do not appear to be on the map, perhaps the last bastion of the taxis. New bus stations are to be built on Adderley Street, Gardens, and Queens Beach in Sea Point. I noticed construction work on what looks like another building at the Civic Centre terminal.
I decided that in future I will park near the Stadium and take the MyCiTi bus when I need to be in the center of town, saving parking monies as well as the harassment by the parking guards, that is if one can find parking. The new R4 billion MyCiTi public bus transport system is a welcome ‘legacy’ of the 2010 World Cup, and its efficiency of operation was well worth all the inconvenience during the construction phases. It is a clever way of getting taxis out of the city centre, two taxi association companies and Golden Arrow Bus Services operating the new bus system.
I felt as if I was in another country, travelling in brand new world-class buses. The new MyCiTi bus system is an impressive service for our tourists and locals alike.
MyCiTi, Tel toll-free 0800 65 64 63. www.capetown.gov.za/myciti
Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio: www.whalecottage.com Twitter: @WhaleCottage
Today the World Cup 2010 started a year ago. While many may remember the wonderful 30-day period nostalgically, the hard reality of this largest world event is attracting criticism in its impact on the hospitality and tourism industry, which has reached its lowest low, something other mega-event cities have experienced before. The event was commemorated yesterday with the launch of a new coffee table book ‘CapeAbility: Stories and Successes from the 2010 FIFA World Cup’.
The infrastructure benefits of the World Cup cannot be denied : Cape Town has a renewed station building, a world-class airport, and far improved access into and from the city on its N1 and N2 highways. It has a beautiful Cape Town Stadium, which has become a tourist icon for the city in itself. It has a most wonderful Green Point Park, which was developed next to the Stadium, as well as a general upliftment of the Green Point and Mouille Point area. It led to the roll-out of the recently completed and far improved public transport MyCiti service. It added more international hotel brands to the city’s five-star hotel portfolio. It created an Ubuntu amongst Capetonians and the city’s visitors, on its festive flag-decorated Fan Walks. It positioned Cape Town, and South Africa with it, as a safer country than had been perceived before.
But the downside appears to outweigh the benefits a year down the line: there is no operator for the Cape Town Stadium since SAIL Stade de France reneged on its contract with the City of Cape Town. Cape Town ratepayers will have to carry the cost of operating the Stadium, not making ends meet with the few events that have been hosted in the venue since July last year. The tourism industry suffered poor pre- and post-event bookings last year, and was led to believe that it would benefit from a tourism boom that would last for years to come. The industry was conned by MATCH, the FIFA accommodation booking agency, with massive cancellations just days before the start of the Wold Cup. Surprisingly, the industry is experiencing its worst ever year, and even more surprisingly, Cape Town Tourism told its members yesterday that it was to have been expected, given the Sydney experience – a 5-year slump after the 2000 Olympic Games, largely because the city tourism authorities assumed that no marketing was required after the widely publicised event. Cape Town appears to have made the same mistake, an error which is compounded by the poor UK economy, the largest tourism source market for the city, the strong Rand, and high airfares.
Not unsurprisingly, tourism consultants Grant Thornton, who badly overestimated the World Cup tourism numbers, praised the R40 billion national capital expenditure on the World Cup, the consultancy’s Gillian Saunders saying it was money “well spent, with some areas still to be leveraged”, reports the Cape Times. She states that the infrastructure benefit had ‘significant legacy value leading to a better quality of life and provided long-term valuable assets’. She admitted that the slow recovery from the global recession was responsible for the lack of the tourism boom which had been predicted. Yet she said that “a large number of tourism businesses would not have survived the economic slump if it weren’t for the event”. She reminded the industry that R3,6 billion revenue had been generated and that just more than 100000 tourists had visited the Western Cape, and just more than double this number visited Gauteng.
Cape Town Tourism has blamed SA Tourism for focusing too much on wildlife and the natural beauty of the country, and too little on its cities, in its marketing of the country. The World Cup had created a greater city focus, but this has not been sustained by SA Tourism in its post-World Cup marketing, Cape Town Tourism says. To strengthen brand Cape Town, Cape Town Tourism proposes that the “city’s urban identity, innovative outlook, entrepreneurial spirit, academic excellence and pioneering medical and science sectors must be added to the brand palette in order for it to effectively compete in the domestic and global market”, in addition to its leisure tourism positioning, it is reported in BizCommunity.com.
The Cape Argus yesterday ‘shouted’ in a headline:”Post-World Cup tourism boom ‘non-existent'”, stating that the benefits have been the international performers who held concerts in the Stadium, the city’s improved infrastructure, and the survival of a number of tourism businesses. It quotes Cape Town Tourism as saying that Cape Town is in a ‘brand vacuum’. The annual operating cost of the Stadium is quoted as being R57 million. Two concerts have been booked, and a further two are in the pipeline, according to the city’s new head of Tourism, Grant Pascoe. Talks with Western Province rugby continue, he said. He added that the city is receiving more event applications than it did prior to the World Cup. Developing the Fan Walk into a 24/7 facility is also being considered. The oversupply of hotel accommodation can be attributed to nine new hotels with 1500 rooms in total, which were built for the World Cup, says Dirk Elzinga, Chairman of FEDHASA Cape. He naively states that many hotels have already received repeat World Cup business, and that the ‘extremely low occupancies’ of some hotels ‘was normal for the off-season’!
Launched by Premier Helen Zille and Mayor Patricia de Lille, the ‘CapeAbility’ book documents the ‘planning, delivery and effect’ of the World Cup on the Western Cape, says BizCommunity.com. The book “makes every effort to extract honest lessons to understand the hosting of such mega-events better. It is designed therefore not as a memento of the event, but a review of what worked, what didn’t and what could be done better and become a guide to hosting future events”. “The book is meant to play a marketing role and points out that it is crucial that opportunities, such as the World Cup, are converted into more than just short-term profits for a small tourism and events sector, but into huge brand building opportunities for a country”.
Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio: www.whalecottage.com Twitter: @WhaleCottage