{"id":21486,"date":"2011-06-09T11:01:00","date_gmt":"2011-06-09T09:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.whalecottage.com\/blog\/?p=21486"},"modified":"2011-06-18T14:18:33","modified_gmt":"2011-06-18T12:18:33","slug":"cape-town-tourism-recovery-only-in-2014-says-cape-town-tourism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chrisvonulmenstein.com\/blog\/cape-town\/cape-town-tourism-recovery-only-in-2014-says-cape-town-tourism\/","title":{"rendered":"Cape Town tourism recovery only in 2014, says Cape Town Tourism!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>It was depressing to read the\u00a0article”The Business Case for Tourism and a strong brand for Cape Town”\u00a0by Cape Town Tourism CEO Mariette du Toit-Helmbold, and published on the Cape Town Tourism Blog.\u00a0 Oddly it has not been sent to its members.\u00a0 The most disturbing prediction it contains is that the R14 billion Cape Town tourism industry, which employs just short of 300000 staff, will only recover in 2014, in getting back to the 2007 level, the last good year for tourism in Cape Town.\u00a0 What is disappointing is that Mrs Helmbold does not provide any guidelines\u00a0to her Cape Town Tourism members as to how businesses should survive the next three years of poor business,\u00a0nor does she spell out what she and her\u00a0organisation\u00a0are doing to market Cape Town more visibly!<\/p>\n

To set the scene, Mrs Helmbold writes that international arrivals to Cape Town as well as domestic arrivals have stagnated due to the ‘Global Financial Crisis’, as she calls it, and she estimates a total loss of R 1,5 billion for the Cape Town tourism industry between 2008 – 2014, with zero job creation as a result.\u00a0 Unlike other provinces,\u00a0Cape Town and the Western Cape has little Africa-business, with more than 80 % of its business coming from Europe (including the UK, one assumes)\u00a0and the USA.\u00a0 Cape Town is a small fish in a massive global tourism pond, with our city’s market share being 0,2 % of world tourism.\u00a0 She blames SA Tourism by implication for doing too much marketing of wildlife, and too little of the cities in our country :”…many national campaigns are of a tactical nature, which do not necessarily build knowledge and esteem values of our cities”.<\/em>\u00a0 The marketing of Cape Town, which is the responsibility of Cape Town Tourism, does “not allow for Cape Town to be compellingly and relevantly portrayed to potential visitors”.<\/em>\u00a0 This sounds odd, as\u00a0Mrs Helmbold\u00a0is pointing at her own organisation, but she does not explain what constraints there are to marketing the city. She also states that Cape Town’s attributes of being “iconic, complex and multi-faceted”<\/em> are not evident to tourists.<\/p>\n

The rest of the five page document becomes a long and theoretical ramble\u00a0about how Cape Town should be positioned and at whom it should be aimed: in summary, the marketing of Cape Town no longer should be focused on leisure tourism alone, by highlighting the beauty of Cape Town, but it should incorporate business, investment, academia, and the creative sectors too. All of this appears to have been written to justify to its funders, the City of Cape Town, that unnamed ‘partnerships’ (probably the writers of the document, given its theoretical nature and unusual style for Mrs Helmbold’s writing) are “waiting in the wings for public sector endorsement of Cape Town Tourism’s new 2011\/2012 marketing strategy and for the brand execution plan”.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Sydney is\u00a0used as an example,\u00a0in how the 2000 Olympic Games caused a five-year tourism slump to that city, mainly because they stopped marketing themselves, thinking that they had world exposure.\u00a0 The key learning points for Cape Town Tourism are that cities do not market themselves, they need to be marketed; investment in infrastructure and hosting events create growth and ‘livability’, but may not be relevant to tourists: “lack of marketing induces invisibility and irrelevance, which in itself reduces demand”.<\/em><\/p>\n

The conclusion of the article seems far too obvious, and one must question why Cape Town Tourism, custodians of brand Cape Town, have not been able to identify the poor tourism and resultant poor industry performance trends, and have not acted proactively to address these problems.\u00a0 Mrs Helmbold concludes: “If we do not act decisively now our industry and the economic well being of our city and people are at great risk.\u00a0 If we don’t proactively engage in a new marketing and branding strategy we run the risk of being positioned nonetheless by our competitors, our critics and the media, and most likely to our disadvantage”. <\/em>The last sentence does not make sense in its wording, nor can one understand why Cape Town Tourism has not changed its marketing strategy to date, having been responsible for the city’s marketing for the past three years already.<\/p>\n

As we have pointed out on this Blog, the recent TripAdvisor accolade of Cape Town being ranked in first place as its Travellers’ Choice Top Destination<\/a>,<\/span> <\/strong>has seen no tourism benefit at all, and this is echoed by Ms Helmbold: “Although we are considered as one of the new cities to watch for 2020 and continue to rake in travel accolades, it is no guarantee for success or economic growth”.<\/em><\/p>\n

One must question whether Cape Town Tourism is capable of\u00a0driving such an important campaign, influencing the revenue of almost all the city’s businesses, all directly or indirectly influenced by tourism, and of its population, dependent on jobs.\u00a0\u00a0Cape Town Tourism’s Marketing Manager until recently was Lianne Burton, a journalist, and not a marketer.\u00a0 Her departure from the organisation has been kept low-key.\u00a0 Ms Burton has not been replaced to date.\u00a0 Mrs Helmbold and her PR Manager Skye Grove\u00a0are very active on Twitter, but this is rarely about tourism, and far more about their social life.\u00a0We must question why their time during working hours is not focused on their work and the marketing challenges of our city\u00a0! \u00a0A further concern is the information that we have received that the highly respected PR company that Cape Town Tourism had appointed in Germany, KPRN, no longer does the PR for\u00a0Cape Town.\u00a0 There appears to be no visible benefit to tourism in Cape Town of the appointment by Cape Town Tourism of PR agencies in\u00a0Holland, Germany and the UK.<\/p>\n

We wrote to Mrs Helmbold, and asked her some questionsaboutthemarketing of Cape Town.\u00a0 The first question related to the replacement of Ms Burton.\u00a0 It appears that Ms Burton left some time ago, but is assisting Cape Town Tourism in a “consultative role” until the end of this month.\u00a0 A new Executive Manager: Marketing should start on 1\u00a0July, she wrote.\u00a0\u00a0Of concern is that Cape Town Tourism also does not appear to have an eMarketing Manager, with a job advertisement posted on Careers24 yesterday,\u00a0and requiring the person\u00a0to start on 1 July, not giving anyone time to work out their notice!\u00a0\u00a0 We asked about the international PR companies that\u00a0had been appointed, but Mrs Helmbold was only detailed in respect of the non-renewal of the contract with Kleber Public Relations Network,\u00a0which has worked with SA Tourism for years.\u00a0 The company\u00a0has been replaced by Akomasa Creative Connection in Germany.\u00a0 Mrs Helmbold did not provide information about the success of the PR campaigns overseas, other than to say that information about it has been\u00a0presented\u00a0at workshops, which not all Cape Town Tourism members can attend.\u00a0 One hopes that Cape Town Tourism can justify its international spend by sending members a detailed report of their international activities to obtain exposure for Cape Town.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In reply to our question:”What is Cape Town Tourism doing to prevent a bloodbath of restaurant, hotel and other accommodation closures due to poor forward bookings?”, Mrs Helmbold was generalist and vague, and\u00a0she does not appear to understand that a solution must be found NOW, and not in months to come! This was her disappointing response:<\/p>\n

“As I explained in the Paper done on the Business Case for Tourism, the global financial crisis and the subsequent consumer behavioural change has had a significant adverse effect on the tourism industry; demand has diminished, visitor spends have steadied and costs have increased. Our over-reliance on traditional source markets, worse hit by the GFC, places us at further risk. There is not a quick-fix for this problem and no one could anticipate the extend<\/em> (sic)\u00a0of the impact of the GFC, of which we are really only now experiencing the magnitude of the impact. This is of course exaggerated by seasonality and as I said before our over-reliance on international leisure visitors from mainly Europe and the US.<\/em> \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Investing in a strong, multi-dimensional brand is critical. We are pursuing private partners for a few significant brand platforms like international TV productions (BBC, National Geographic), events and campaigns, focusing on our unique strengths as a destination i.e. food and wine. We are focusing our efforts and resources on the \u201cdream\u201d and \u201cconversion\u201d part of the customer journey \u2013 assuming that the choice to come to Cape Town is not an obvious one and expensive to get here. We have to reinforce the awareness created during the World Cup, but move to conversion with good value for money offers. From an eMarketing perspective we are adding bookabilitytoourweb-platforms by July this year, starting with accommodation and then introducing it for tours and activities as soon as the new module is built. Through the new marketing alliance with Joburg and Durban we should be able to leverage some of SAT\u2019s marketing spend, this will be a key focus for us in the next 4 months. <\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Whilst we continue our investment and reinforce our presence in traditional international leisure markets, we are investing in domestic tourism, using mainly some key events as draw-cards and working with the business sector to start changing negative perceptions around our business brand. Both the domestic and business markets are complex issues and will take a long-term approach to turn the tide against seasonality. <\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

We are hosting a series of product workshops within the next few months on value, price, packaging and marketing alignment aimed to assist the industry to become more competitive and mitigate some of the risks faced within these tough economic times. <\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

We will all have to work very hard together, under a powerful and united destination brand, to change the current trends and grow tourism into a more sustainable, year-round industry with a more healthy balance between international leisure, business and domestic tourism. <\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

We are making a few significant changes to our marketing strategy and as soon as the plan is finalised and partners confirmed we will share it with the industry.”<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

We call for a\u00a0heavyweight Marketing professional to be appointed, to drive Cape Town Tourism’s marketing of Cape Town.\u00a0Ms Helmboldhasbeen running “Brand Cape Town” workshops for the past three years, and\u00a0she is still asking workshops what Cape Town stands for.\u00a0 Surely by now she and her team should have decided on a unique positioning for Cape Town that would be universally applicable in communication with all the\u00a0sectors it wishes to attract to Cape Town.\u00a0 Ms Helmbold’s article sounds like a city marketing organisation that is overwhelmed by the problems its tourism industry\u00a0is facing, and that does not know the way forward – a very scary situation indeed!<\/p>\n

POSTSCRIPT 10\/6<\/strong>:\u00a0 The only response from Cape Town Tourism is this sarcastic Tweet from\u00a0its PR Manager Skye Grove:\u00a0 @<\/em>MariettedTH<\/em><\/span><\/a>ons le, sit, loop, rol rond op twitter.. tsk tsk.. mar (<\/em>sic)\u00a0ek belowe ek sal more bietjie werk.. @<\/em>SoniaCabano1<\/em><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

POSTSCRIPT 10\/6:\u00a0 <\/strong>Yesterday Cape Town Routes Unlimited CEO Calvyn Gilfellan was reported on Eye Witness News<\/strong> to have urged ‘hotels and industry suppliers to reduce their rates to make travel more affordable for locals’<\/em>.\u00a0 He said “I think the industry must really wake up and make themselves more affordable if they want to remain competitive in a very cut-throat industry”.\u00a0 <\/em><\/p>\n

POSTSCRIPT 12\/6<\/strong>: A business tourism event with a difference was the hosting of the global Playboy <\/strong>editors’ conference, which took place at the Mount Nelson Hotel\u00a0earlier this\u00a0week, reports the Weekend Argus<\/strong> .\u00a0 The group of fifty met for three days.<\/p>\n

POSTSCRIPT 13\/6<\/strong>: The Bureau of Economic Research sent its results for the confidence in the Services industry today.\u00a0\u00a0Of the service sectors surveyed, Accommodation has\u00a0by far the lowest Business Confidence Index at only 25% (the next lowest is Real Estate at 41%).\u00a0\u00a0Accommodation bookings are expected to decrease by 56% in the second quarter of 2011, relative to 2010, which was\u00a0out of the ordinary for bookings due to the World Cup.\u00a0 For the third quarter of this year, bookings are expected to be down by 23 %.\u00a0\u00a0Trend information supplied showed that the last period of growth for the Accommodation industry was the fourth quarter of 2007.<\/p>\n

POSTSCRIPT 13\/6:<\/strong>\u00a0 The provincial Minister of Tourism, Alan Winde, has announced that his plans to consolidate a number of marketing agencies for Western Cape businesses into an Economic Development Agency are back on track, and the Agency is expected to be launched in November, reports the Cape Argus <\/strong>today.\u00a0 Perhaps this is the agency that can do the business marketing of Cape Town.\u00a0 However, Cape Town Tourism is no longer\u00a0on the Minister’s list of agencies which he wants to consolidate, his plans to do so originally causing a huge outcry.\u00a0 The agencies to be consolidated include Wesgro, Cape Town Routes Unlimited, the Cape Craft and Design Institute, the Cape Film Commission, Calling the Cape, the Cape Town Boatbuilding and Technology Initiative, the Cape Music Industry Commission, the Cape Town Fashion Council, and ten others.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

POSTSCRIPT 14\/6:\u00a0 <\/strong>One company that is benefiting from the tourism slump is the Protea Hospitality Group,\u00a0which is leasing\u00a0and buying hotels that have ‘over-extended themselves and are now struggling to survive due to the current slump in the local hotel industry’, reports Southern African Tourism Update<\/strong>.\u00a0 Protea’s CEO Arthur Gillis predicts that ‘many of South Africa’s 80 hotel brands will disappear’.\u00a0 Gillissaid that he doubted whether there will be a tourism boom ‘unless it gets more bums on airline seats’. He suggests that SAA should fly routes in the interest of tourism, whether profitable or not.<\/p>\n

POSTSCRIPT 14\/6:<\/strong> Gillian Saunders of tourism consultancy Grant Thornton said about the tourism industry recently: “It’s really tough out there”.<\/em>\u00a0 She blamed this on the recession, the strong Rand, increased costs such as electricity and labour, and an oversupply of accommodation, reported the Cape Times<\/strong>.\u00a0 City Lodge Hotels CEO Clifford Ross said: “It’s probably the worst I have known for 32 years”.<\/em>\u00a0 He added that no one “expected the drop-off after the World Cup to be so severe. There will be casualties in the market. Quite a few (hotels)\u00a0are teetering on the brink”.\u00a0 <\/em><\/p>\n

POSTSCRIPT 17\/6<\/strong>: Southern African Tourism Update<\/strong>\u00a0 reports that the Minister is to have also said at the FEDHASA Cape AGM that local tourism authorities should not market internationally, as SA Tourism is doing so already, and that they should focus on local marketing instead.\u00a0 He quoted the example of KZN Tourism, which has a marketing office in Gauteng.\u00a0 Was he addressing Cape Town Tourism and Cape Town Routes Unlimited?\u00a0<\/p>\n

Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio: www.whalecottage.com<\/a>\u00a0 Twitter: @WhaleCottage<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It was depressing to read the\u00a0article”The Business Case for Tourism and a strong brand for Cape Town”\u00a0by Cape Town Tourism CEO Mariette du Toit-Helmbold, and published on the Cape Town Tourism Blog.\u00a0 Oddly it has not been sent to its members.\u00a0 The most disturbing prediction it contains is that the R14 billion Cape Town tourism […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false},"categories":[3,124,22,21],"tags":[11807,11814,11812,32367,11810,11819,1317,7739,11815,11934,1477,11935,11936,7269,7277,32366,7276,7278,108,85,11808,32378,5926,11954,257,11953,10422,7368,7747,320,9513,11809,530,146,11811,11820,11818,11966,12,261,2999,340,347,5918,1326,11813,7828,9794,11952,662,727,11806,252,910,759,3620,8739,542,5,11817,11816,1086,1587,562,515,32387,32373,5785,531],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t