Nelson Mandela Bay Tourism (NMBT) and the municipality report that they have reaped the benefits of their collective efforts at the South African tourism event of the year, Indaba 2012, saying that they have returned to the city together with enthusiast international media all set to tell millions of readers and viewers all about Nelson Mandela Bay.
Chinese and Argentinian journalists from their respective countries’ top travel media have selected Nelson Mandela Bay as their post Indaba tour. They will spend five days in the city.
“This is always one of the cherries on top after Indaba. To have media that you meet there following you home, so they can experience what you’ve been showing them using brochures, DVDs and presentations is a great outcome. It’s always a good sign and results in great media coverage that money can’t buy,” said NMBT CEO Mandlakazi Skefile when she returned from Durban on Wednesday 16 May.
In addition to this, the team that attended Indaba have also returned with new ideas and connections. This news follows hot on the heels of Port Elizabeth being voted one of the top 25 tourism destinations in Africa and among the top 10 in South Africa.
“It was a great experience this year. Our stand was busy most of the time. Meetings were scheduled with a number of key stakeholders and tourism businesses from South Africa and overseas. Even the MEC for economic development and environment affairs, that includes tourism, Mcebisi Jonas, visited all Eastern Cape stands on day one of Indaba. This boosted everyone’s spirits,” said Skefile about the biggest tourism and travel show in Africa.
Indaba this year attracted more than 3000 delegates. This makes it the largest tourism marketing event on the African calendar and one of the top three ‘must-visit’ events of its kind on the global tourism calendar.
“We set out to use Indaba to grow the NMBT database and pick up as many leads in the tourism industry through meetings with tour operators and the media. We also marketed the destination through multimedia offering and we achieved just that with some promising future prospects in the bag,” said NMBT marketing manager Titus Chuene.
The key is to market a city of experiences and not individual businesses, “you are not selling someone a place to sleep, but rather an experience of the city in which your business operates”.
Chuene added that this week will be used to showcase our heritage, top ten icons, including beaches, and wildlife to the international media visiting the Bay.
“Such opportunities is what makes Indaba such a worthwhile event. It is the best platform for marketing tourism and young SMME’s learn a lot at these shows as well,” said Chuene.
According to Chuene, this is exactly the kind of outcomes from Indaba expected, “it extends the marketing and exposure beyond the event – proving again that the show really is a hot-spot for making positive and proficient connections in the industry.”
The city also launched launch “Route 67” to the travel businesses and media at Indaba. After which a meeting was held with the South African Ambassador in Argentina, Tony Leon, to discuss opportunities for marketing in the South American market. Meetings were also held with very strategic agencies to represent NMB in the Indian and Russian market.
Skefile believes the reward of this year’s Indaba was countless, but the real hard work starts when the event is over.
“Our strategy is similar to most cities in the country. In the next financial year, we plan to place much emphasis on developing markets. These are countries like China, India, Russia and Brasil. Growth in these countries is recorded as double digits. It is these Asian markets that have contributed to the overall arrivals growth in 2011 of 14.6%. Top performing Asian markets in 2011 were India, China (including Hong Kong) and Japan. We are busy developing strategies to target these markets,” she added.
Traditional markets like UK, Germany, Netherlands and USA will also be targeted by NMBT together with the Eastern Cape Parks and Tourism Agency (ECPTA) – as they have representatives in those respective countries, “Our aim is to continue to defend our market share in these countries, as Europe remained the top performing overseas source region in terms of tourist arrivals, followed by the Americas, with Asia and Australasia continuing to gain ground.”
Two Eastern Cape SMME’s that stood out were Jeya’s Jazz Tavern and Red Location backpackers.
“It is wonderful seeing other businesses also taking the right approach to Indaba. The Red Location back packers lodge has had wonderful exposure and received a lot of interest. They are quickly learning how important marketing a SMME is and making connections. The enthusiastic atmosphere at the stands were almost contagious,” said assistant director of tourism at NMBM, Carleen Arends.
Alan Straton
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