Nelson Mandela Bay Tourism (NMBT) as the destination marketing organisation for the areas of Uitenhage, Despatch, Port Elizabeth and surrounds acknowledges that it is vital to be pro-active, innovative and creative in order to continue to attract visitors and investment to the destination for economic and cultural development.
During 2012 foreign direct spend amounted to R 920 081 556 (19%), sustaining 7 224 jobs while domestic tourism amounted for about R3.84 billion (80.7%) of the overall direct spend (R4.76 billion) into the Nelson Mandela Bay’s economy which sustained over 37 000 jobs in total. Travel and Tourism has a contribution to South Africa’s GDP, employment and exports.
NMBT recently collaborated with South African Tourism (SAT) and NMBT members to host various international and national niche market media after concluding that hosting various media groups is a cost effective solution to reach a larger marketing platform over and above high cost generic advertising. Mandlakazi Skefile, CEO of NMBT, said; “Hosting media and creating collaborations in exchange for write ups and editorial pieces is therefore a strategic marketing avenue NMBT has taken, to ensure exposure for Nelson Mandela Bay and the products. Through hosting media they are able to view the destination through the same eyes as what a tourist would, therefore compelling them to write and share authentic experiences with the reader.”
NMBT recently hosted 3 groups of influential media who were exposed to various, attractions, cultures and activities, who will speak directly to specific target markets. (Clicking on the names of each of the media representatives below will take you to their contact and/or body of work pages).
First to land on our shores from 16 to 17 September 2013 were three Dutch fashion and lifestyle journalists:
- Jurriaan Teulings, represents Winq Magazine – a bi-monthly mens interest magazine also represented in iPad and Android applications as well as an e-magazine, with a reach of 103 000 and an estimated Advertising Value Equivalent (AVE)* value of 4 500 Euros per page with an expected total AVE for the NMBT region of 27 000 Euros.
- Joost Brantjies** of Het Parool, a daily national newspaper, with a reach of 287 000 and
- Yolijn van Dinten of the fashion and lifestyle magazine, Vogue, which has a reach of 180 000 and an expected AVE of 12 500 Euros.
These media visitors were exposed to culinary delights at Fusion in Stanley Street, the luxurious lifestyle of the 5 star Pumba private Game Reserve as well as the exquisite quality of Mohair products and a mill tour by Hinterveld Mohair. This estimated advertising value equivalent exposure to over 570 000 Dutch citizens is approximately R1 112 807.
Popular SABC radio station Ikwekwezi FM was hosted from the 21 to 23 September 2013. The representatives enjoyed a cultural township tour, Sunshine Saunter tour, Route 67, Nanaga Pies, nightlife as well as canopy tours and Segways in Tsitsikamma. They will be covering the destination daily for the duration of a week sharing the experiences they had in NMB while encouraging listeners to travel to NMB. Ikwekwezi FM, the only SABC radio station based in the capital city of the country, Pretoria has approximately 1.379 million listeners.
Canadian freelance journalist, Maryam Siddiqi, of the National Post newspaper, was an honoured guest of NMB from the 26 to 27 September 2013. Maryam is on a six month trip around the world writing articles about each of the destinations she visits. Before landing in South Africa Maryam was in New Zealand and Australia and will be heading to Botswana and Kenya. Maryam’s editorial brief was to produce 2-3 online articles per South African province. She plans to write additional specialty posts, including accommodation and food reviews and photo essays. The online pieces will then be excerpted and printed on Saturdays in the paper’s weekend edition which has a circulation of 422 800, a weekday print circulation of 420 600 and an online audience of 584 400. The pieces will mainly cover her experiences of a city tour, Route 67, Hinterveld Mohair Mill Tour, Bridge Street Brewery, SAMREC, Sunshine Saunter, Stanley Street as well as the Boardwalk Accommodation and Entertainment.
Titus Chuene, Marketing manager of NMBT said; “Hosting media has the ability to expose the destination to wider markets on a more frequent basis with a more detailed and personal experience shared. This allows for a higher volume of information to be shared for a higher monetary value to a greater audience reach.”
Editor: And what of local media? MyPE’s AVE is consistently and independently valued in excess of R20 000.00 per article published. Giving you more than 20 000 sound reasons to submit your news and company news to any one of the many free submission pages on MyPE – Letters, News or Mover and Shakers. Do yourself a favour though and chat to any one of our friendly Port Elizabeth Public Relations experts before you embark on sending press releases out – they will make sure that your release passes muster and also that it gets published.
* Advertising Value Equivalent, or AVE, is an internationally accepted unit of measure that assigns a rand-value to free editorial mention.
** So sorry I failed to find a website, home page or social media presence for Joost Brantjies using Google so I linked to the newspaper Het Parool instead.
Alan Straton
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