{"id":48374,"date":"2013-09-23T00:06:55","date_gmt":"2013-09-22T22:06:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.whalecottage.com\/blog\/?p=48374"},"modified":"2013-09-23T09:54:13","modified_gmt":"2013-09-23T07:54:13","slug":"cape-town-tourism-tries-to-market-cape-town-via-bloggers-yet-again-unlikely-to-be-successful","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chrisvonulmenstein.com\/blog\/cape-town\/cape-town-tourism-tries-to-market-cape-town-via-bloggers-yet-again-unlikely-to-be-successful\/","title":{"rendered":"Cape Town Tourism tries to market Cape Town via Bloggers yet again! Unlikely to be successful!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0\"Cape<\/a>Cape Town Tourism is hosting three bloggers over a three week period, as a repeat of the 2012 Travel Blogger visit, attempting to reach international and domestic travelers and to encourage them to visit Cape Town. \u00a0This campaign failed to achieve its goal in 2012, and the new campaign could follow the same route!<\/p>\n

We were very critical of the visit by the four bloggers<\/strong><\/span><\/a>\u00a0last year, after the New York Times<\/strong> questioned the ethics of travel blogging, and focused its article on Keith Jenkins, the Velvet Escape blogger who led the Blogger team coming to Cape Town last year. \u00a0The Bloggers were seen to have blogged little before, during, and after their visit to Cape Town, and to have little credibility in not declaring that their visits were sponsored by Cape Town Tourism and its members, and that there was little that they paid for themselves. \u00a0This led to ‘advertorials’ written, mainly about their accommodation in Camps Bay. \u00a0Most of what was posted by the bloggers was ‘photoblogs’, a blogpost consisting of a photograph only!<\/p>\n

Cape Town Tourism issued a very brief media release about the pending blogger visits, and claimed incorrectly that the ‘inaugural #lovecapetown blogger hosting programme contributed to Cape Town Tourism winning a Travel + Leisure SMITTY Awards<\/a> (Social Media in Travel + Tourism Awards) in the category Best Overall Use of Social Media, CVB, Global<\/em>‘. \u00a0The awards which were won by Cape Town Tourism (a Gold Loerie added on Saturday evening) were for the Facebook campaign, inviting one to take one’s Facebook profile on holiday, and had nothing to do with the hashtag nor the visit by the bloggers. \u00a0We have written how the Cannes Gold Award which Ogilvy Cape Town won for the Facebook campaign was based on misleading claims<\/strong><\/span><\/a> made by the advertising agency of the\u00a0‘success’<\/em> of the campaign!<\/p>\n

Cape Town Tourism has created a #lovecapetown page<\/strong><\/span><\/a> on its website, being a summation of all Facebook posts and Tweets using the hashtag. One is invited to follow the bloggers via the hashtag. \u00a0Surprising is that Cape Town Tourism has created so little excitement for the arrival of the bloggers, but our meeting with its CEO Enver Duminy highlighted how short staffed <\/strong><\/span><\/a>his organisation is. \u00a0The media release states that the three travel bloggers will\u00a0‘pair up with local companion bloggers from Cape Town and other parts of South Africa<\/em>‘, but the local bloggers were not mentioned. \u00a0This detail was on the Cape Town Tourism website: ‘Each international blogger will be paired with her South African genre counterpart and these include\u00a0Merushka Govender<\/a>\u00a0(Travel);\u00a0Angie Batis\u00a0<\/a>(Design) and<\/em> (now MasterChef SA Season 2 winner)\u00a0Kamini Pather<\/em><\/a>\u00a0(Food)’<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The three bloggers are from countries which Cape Town Tourism writes are ‘key tourism source markets for Cape Town’<\/em>, but the very important German market is visible by its absence!<\/p>\n