Tag Archives: trends

International Tourism scenarios for 2014!

Tourism 2014 trendsAmerican tourism consultant and speaker Dr Peter Tarlow has made some predictions for the tourism industry in 2014.   He believes that not much will change relative to 2013, but has identified some trends that could impact on the tourism industry globally, as reported by eTurboNews:

1.  The economic status of the world in the past few years has placed greater emphasis on the ‘middle class‘, representing the largest number of travellers.

2.   Middle class travellers tend to be more forgiving of tourism mistakes and less perfect service.  They are however sensitive to economic changes, and the cost of credit in particular.  Interest rate increases makes the use of credit more expensive, and can affect travel. As they live on a budget, middle class travellers will be affected by their expectation of taxes and other major cost increases.  Stock market trends influence confidence, even if the middle class does not own shares.

3.   The upper class is more demanding of service when travelling, and less reliant on and believing in marketing.

4.  Security remains an important issue, and global events, such as the Winter Olympics, the Summer Olympics, and the 2014 World Cup will create security challenges, including terrorism, for Brazil in particular.

5.   Airlines will increasingly be disliked, as their service diminishes, as their rates increase, as they merge to save costs, as they Continue reading →

Aviation is the ‘midwife’ for Tourism, says Tourism Minister Van Schalkwyk!

SAA Table MountainMarthinus van Schalkwyk, Minister of Tourism, is not known for flowery language, but is reported to have used some interesting expressions in his address to the General Assembly on Tourism and Aviation of the  Airline Association of Southern Africa earlier this week, reports eTurboNews.

Minister van Schalkwyk said that the aviation and tourism industries were dealing with the same customers, but called them different names. ‘What you call passengers, we call tourists, and that includes both business and leisure travelers. Aviation is the midwife for more than 50% of international tourist arrivals and 70% of all tourism receipts worldwide. But the inverse is of course also true: Tourism is also a “midwife” for air transport growth‘, he said.

Trends which affect the Tourism industry,  identified by the Minister, were the following:

*  Tourism has grown rapidly in the past 60 years. ‘Globally, we expect 350 million new international tourist arrivals by 2020 and, by 2030, we expect arrivals to top 1.8 billion. What makes our sector so unique is its multiplying effect in contributing to GDP (gross domestic product) and job creation’.  The G20 declaration adopted last year reflects the positive social and economic effect of tourism.

*   Economic and political power is moving to the South and to the East. ‘Over the next Continue reading →

Cape Town to become a brand, with its own identity

Good tourism news is that finally some constructive marketing work will begin to happen for Cape Town, in that it is to have a brand developed for it.  Currently Cape Town shares the brand name ‘Cape Town & Western Cape’, which was developed by Cape Town Routes Unlimited about five years ago, and which the tourism industry has rejected from day one as being ‘schizophrenic’.

The tourism marketing bodies in Cape Town have stood still for more than a year, having been focused purely on the World Cup, rather than to continue marketing Cape Town.  Even after the event, no visible marketing was seen from both Cape Town Tourism and Cape Town Routes Unlimited, both organisations appearing to believe that their job was done for the next few years ahead.   They too, like tourism players, are surprised that the tourism onslaught has not happened post the World Cup, given all the hype!   The strained relationship between the two tourism bodies, and the Western Cape Tourism Minister Alan Winde’s threat to amalgamate them, has not helped build relationships between the two bodies.  

Creating a separate stand-alone brand for Cape Town is a huge victory, and in my opinion it signals an ‘UDI’ by Cape Town Tourism, declaring to the Minister that the body is determined to go it alone. The announcement of the branding for the city was contained in a long, not always articulate, article written by Cape Town Tourism CEO, Mariette du Toit-Helmbold, in the Cape Argus earlier this week. The article contains the following marketing plans for Cape Town:

1.   “A long-term vision for the decade ahead”, but Mrs Helmbold does not tell us what this vision is

2.   Trends have to be evaluated, and Mrs Helmbold mentions the example of extreme weather conditions, and says Cape Town should capitalise on these opportunities in other parts of the world, with last minute packages.  However, when the UK tourists were snowed in over Christmas, nothing was done locally nor internationally, as both the CEO’s of Cape Town Tourism and Cape Town Routes Unlimited were on holiday, unheard of for the hospitality industry, when the summer season is at its busiest!

3.   “… Cape Town to lead the way to a new future-fit environment through fundamental change”, a rather meaningless sentence, written in the context of our city embracing “leadership and innovation”, and not hunkering after the way things used to be, is what she is trying to say.  She calls for investing in and testing new ideas.

4.   A “365-day marketing strategy” is mentioned, but no detail is provided.  If this implies a campaign to address seasonality, than it is sorely needed, and should be the priority focus.

5.   In marketing the city, the focus should not only be on Cape Town’s natural beauty, writes Mrs Helmbold.   A series of workshops is to be held to focus on the importance of tourism product development: “We must diversify and invest in new experiences and products”.

6.   Cape Town should be repositioned “as more than just a summer leisure city”.  However, all marketing ever for Cape Town has been focused on the city’s attractiveness to the leisure tourist.   What is needed, Mrs Helmbold writes, is a focus on Cape Town as an attractive business centre, and the encouragement of new tourism entrepreneurs.

7.   The tourist target market must be broadened away from the “white, affluent, well-travelled English speaker”, writes Mrs Helmbold.   Once again, she seems to be out of touch as to the profile of the tourists visiting our city.

I remain surprised about Mrs Helmbold’s lack of understanding of our tourism season.  In the article she writes “While Cape Town’s traditional international season is only starting…”, clearly not aware that the tourism season began in October, and runs through until Easter.

Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio:  www.whalecottage.com   Twitter: @WhaleCottage