Whale Cottage Portfolio Blog

Despite a commitment made more than six months ago that Cape Town Tourism and Cape Town Routes Unlimited would work together to market Cape Town and the Western Cape, and would work to avoid duplication in their marketing activities, little synergy between the two bodies is evident.

Now Western Cape Finance, Economic Development and Tourism Minister Alan Winde has confirmed that the two bodies will not amalgamate, and that nothing will change in the relationship between the two bodies until the end of the World Cup in July, reports Travel News Weekly.  

Winde also stated that a new focus would be the closer co-opration between role-players at national, provincial and local government levels in the Western Cape.   When the DA took both the province and the city in the last election, Winde stated that he would ensure that he would work to the unification of tourism at provincial and City level,  and would prevent it from being vulnerable to political party changes over time. 

The return of Cape Town Tourism CEO Mariette du Toit-Helmbold from maternity leave on 1 April should result in new vitality for the city tourism body.  Du Toit-Helmbold is a dynamic and enthusiastic marketer.  In her absence, Belinda van Niekerk has run Cape Town Tourism, but as she comes from an admin and financial background, she lacks Du Toit-Helmbold’s flair, energy and communication skills.   The new Marketing Manager of Cape Town Tourism, Leanne Burton,  has used Du Toit-Helmbold’s absence to build her own brand name, rather than that of her organisation or (more correctly) of the acting-CEO, in her PR activities for Cape Town Tourism, and has created some hostility with the media.

With the World Cup about 60 days away on her return, Du Toit-Helmbold will have a huge challenge to help fill her members’ beds, given the disappointing bookings over the World Cup to date, and to excite Capetonians about the benefit of Cape Town being one of the host cities for the world’s largest sport event. 

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

Cape Town is facing strong tourism competition, and will have to set itself far tougher tourism challenges and to market itself more creatively to be able to meet this competitive challenge, said Cape Town Tourism CEO Mariette du Toit-Helmbold at the tourism member association AGM earlier this week, reports Southern African Tourism Update. 

“ * be recognised as one of the top cities in the world to live, visit, study and invest in
  * double its tourism income
  * use the Fifa World Cup as a springboard to create an economic legacy and unite Capetonians
  * to solve its seasonality problems.”

 ”* a commercial business development strategy focusing on retail, use of technology to upgrade the visitor services network, and expansion of a patron partnership programme with the corporate sector.

* Joint marketing agreements with the tourism industry to expand private-sector funding contributions.

The best tourism news in a long time is the announcement by Frankfurt-based Kleber PR Network that it has been appointed to market Cape Town, reports DeinTouristNet.

Kleber PR Network has good experience of marketing South Africa in Germany for the past 15 years, having been the PR company in Germany for S A Tourism for many years, until the local national marketing body appointed Ogilvy as its new advertising agency, with an affiliated PR company, therefore relinquishing its relationship with Kleber.  

Whale Cottage has accommodated S A Tourism journalists over the years, and can vouch for the knowledge of and passion for Cape Town and the rest of South Africa of the Kleber PR Network executives. 

Hanna Kleber, CEO of Kleber PR Network, said: “Kapstadt hat jede Menge Potential und wir freuen uns darauf, die Stadt mit gezielten Maßnahmen weiter im Urlaubs- und Businessreise-Markt zu etablieren.   Mit seiner traumhaften Lage an zwei Weltmeeren, dem spannenden Mix aus Nationalitäten und Kulturen und einer landschaftlichen Vielfalt, die ihres gleichen sucht, hat sich Kapstadt in den letzten Jahren als eine der großen internationalen Lifestylemetropolen einen Namen gemacht. Im Zuge der FIFA Fussballweltmeisterschaft 2010 - wird die Stadt zudem als wichtige Austragungsstätte im Fokus der Öffentlichkeit stehen.” (Kleber PR will further enhance Cape Town’s presence in the leisure and business tourism markets, and will position the city as a lifestyle metropole, being very much in the focus for the 2010 World Cup.)

One wonders why Cape Town Tourism does not communicate such exciting news to its members.  WhaleTales recently criticised the lack of visible marketing by Cape Town Tourism and by Cape Town Routes Unlimited, but neither of the two bodies responded to this criticism.  

The appointment of a PR company to market South Africa’s top tourism asset is fantastic news, and would delight its members, especially at a time when membership renewals are due!

Communication with Mariette du Toit-Helmbold, CEO of Cape Town Tourism, has confirmed the appointment of the Kleber PR Network for the marketing of Cape Town in Germany, and she also communicated that a PR company has been appointed in the UK.  A similar appointment is expected in The Netherlands shortly.

Read the full report here

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

The strangest tourism news report ever received is that Cape Town Routes Unlimited has accredited Cape Town Tourism as an official tourism association, in accordance with the accreditation powers that Cape Town Routes Unlimited holds through the Western Cape Tourism Act of 2004.

What is bizarre about the report is that the Act was promulgated five years ago, and Cape Town Routes Unlimited has been in existence for the same period of time.   In this period very few tourism associations were accredited by Cape Town Routes Unlimited - Plettenberg Bay, Franschhoek, and Oudtshoorn come to mind as being the few tourism bureaux whose accreditation was publicised.

Cape Town Tourism is the largest and leading Tourism Bureau in the Western Cape, and one wonders what politics lie behind the accreditation.   What makes the  report in bizcommunity.com so odd is the following sentence:”Accreditation of these tourism organisations ensures that international operating standards are adhered to”.  However, the industry believes Cape Town Tourism to be the more organised and state of the art than Cape Town Routes Unlimited!   The report states that Calvyn Gilfellan, CEO of Cape Town Routes Unlimited, handed over the accreditation certificate to Mariette du Toit-Helmbold, CEO of Cape Town Tourism, at a ceremony attended by the media.

Oddly, the event seems to be a non-event, as neither Cape Town Tourism nor Cape Town Routes Unlimited have issued a media release about it, nor has Cape Town Tourism informed its members of this event!

Anyone in tourism will wonder about this event, given that the two bodies are trying to work together in marketing Cape Town, a role that previously was the responsibility of Cape Town Routes Unlimited, but has been handled by Cape Town Tourism for the past year.

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A report in the Cape Argustwo days ago described the desperate attempt by Cape Town Routes Unlimited’s Marketing executive David Frandsen to obtain funding from Parliament for the marketing of Cape Town in Germany for the 2010 World Cup.

The report reflects the sad state of affairs as far as marketing Cape Town and the Western Cape province goes, and was highlighted in aWhaleTales blog report and letter to the Cape Argus about the lack of marketing of Cape Town just a few days ago.  No response was received to it from Cape Town Tourism, Cape Town Routes Unlimited or any other tourism players.

According to the report, the 2010 marketing campaign for Germany has been cancelled by Cape Town Routes Unlimited,  and it is likely that further 2010 marketing campaigns for the city and the province may be cancelled due to a lack of marketing funds.

The report states that the head of the parliamentary committee on trade and international relations said that the provincial government and the city should “‘urgently’ rethink their funding model and help where necessary”.   The City’s response, via its Deputy Mayor Ian Neilson, is that Cape Town Tourism is doing the job, and that any change in the funding can only be considered in 6 months from now.   He also referred to the collaboration that is meant to be happening between Cape Town Routes Unlimited and Cape Town Tourism, following a meeting of the CEO’s of these two organisations, and their respective political heads Alan Winde and Felicity Purchase.  The nature of the collaboration has not yet been communicated to the industry, despite the meeting having taken place more than 10 weeks ago. 

The Cape Argus report states that at the Cape Town Tourism/Cape Town Routes Unlimited meeting, Cape Town Routes Unlimited had been told to find alternative funding, to fill the R 24 million void created by the withdrawal of the City of Cape Town’s funding.  

Both tourism bodies are doing little or no marketing, in a month which sees forward bookings looking most dismal, with a projected occupancy to be the lowest this year, and worse than any September before.

Cape Town Tourism sent out a media release to co-incide with Tourism Month, which started on 1 September, but seems full of empty rhetoric.   “During Tourism Month, Live It, Love It, LOUDER!is focused on celebrating “My Cape Town” - an exploration of the different corners of our hometown and a window into the lives of the people who live there. Capetonians will also learn more about their hometown in readiness for the role as world cup hosts.  To showcase this personal perspective of Cape Town, the “My Cape Town” Flickr Pic competition is being launched on 1 September with the theme “This is the Cape Town I Want the World to see”.  Enthusiastic photographers and proud citizens can submit their entries via www.capetown.travel/worldtourismmonthand stand a chance of winning a cash prize of R15 000″ says Cape Town Tourism’s Mariette du Toit-Helmbold. 

Cape Town Routes Unlimited got some Capetonians together, and taught them how to do the Diski-dance, in preparation for the 2010 World Cup.   Cape Town Routes Unlimited has also just launched a “Beyond the 90 Minutes” campaign, to encourage soccer fans to visit other parts of the Western Cape when they come to Cape Town to see the matches.   Six themed itineraries, including Adrenaline Adventure; Gourmet; Culture and Heritage; Natural Beauty;  Body, Mind & Spirit; and Cosmopolitan Vibe have been presented on the www.tourismcapetown.co.za website.   Locals and the media are also addressed on the ‘Beyond the 90 Minutes’ section of the website, and special accommodation offers are promoted for this month already.

Cape Town Routes Unlimited has also launched a World Cup 2010 Soccer Fan competition.  “South African soccer fans are known for their outrageous, fun and colourfully decorated costumes and accessories worn at matches to show support for their favourite team. Soccer fans from other countries attending the 2010 FIFA World Cup™ in South Africa are also expected to come all decked out in support of their national side.  CTRU is looking for the liveliest, most inspired and colourful pictures of fans at soccer matches from around the world. All they have to do is post their best photo on the ‘Beyond the 90 Minutes’ Flickr group at www.flickr.com before 31 October 2009. Not only do they stand the chance to win a Cape Town and Western Cape 2010 travel package worth R50 000 including accommodation and meals, but also a special, limited edition makarapa (a decorated miners’ helmet unique to South African soccer fans and fast becoming a ‘must-have’ fashion item) of their very own”  says the Cape Town Routes Unlimited media release.

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With just over nine months to go before the 2010 World Cup, the marketing for Cape Town and the Western Cape appears to have become close to invisible.

About a year ago Cape Town Tourism was given the mandate by its members to accept the City of Cape Town’s directive to manage the marketing of Cape Town, a job previously done by Cape Town Routes Unlimited.    A Marketing Strategy was to have been prepared by Mariette du Toit-Helmbold, the bubbly Cape Town Tourism CEO, and she spent many hours obtaining input from members of the tourism industry to develop such a strategy, and a positioning for Cape Town.   She was a prolific writer and sent out numerous media releases.   The last release sent out by Cape Town Tourism, however,  was over a month ago, on 21 July.  

Cape Town Tourism has added a 2010 World Cup page to its website, and it is printing two issues of its Visitor’s Guide, instead of the usual one issue per year.  This appears to be the sum total of its current marketing activity.

At the time of her many brainstorming sessions, Du Toit-Helmbold favoured a positioning for Cape Town as the centre for innovation, design and creativity, but this has not been translated into a pay-off line, and it is not visible in the design of Cape Town Tourism’s website and letterhead.   The signature at the bottom of Du Toit-Helmbold’s e-mails has the pay-off line for Cape Town: “Living Cape Town.  Loving Cape Town”.    The website does not carry this pay-off line at all, but justifies the official Cape Town website www.capetown.travel as follows:” your trusted, impartial guide to Cape Town”.  The company started Twittering actively about three months ago, but now is invisible on Twitter. 

Cape Town Routes Unlimited is even quieter, and only sends out a weekly Events newsletter to the industry, and irregular CEO newsletters with far too many photographs, mainly of its CEO Calvyn Gilfillan.   An industry newsletter which helped inform tourism players has silently disappeared.

The CEO’s of Cape Town Tourism and of Cape Town Routes Unlimited last month met with the new Tourism heads in the City of Cape Town and Western Cape, Felicity Purchase and Alan Winde, respectively.  Could Du Toit-Helmbold have been silenced since attending this meeting?   The dates appear to coincide.

Interestingly, media reports earlier this year indicated that Cape Town Tourism had been awarded the marketing of Cape Town for another year, instead of referring to a three-year contract having been signed.   It intimated that the City had to seek tenders for the marketing, and could not just hand this over to Cape Town Tourism, as had been made public a year ago.   No information about a tender process, and the winner thereof, has been made public.

The meeting between Cape Town Tourism and Cape Town Routes Unlimited would have covered the prevention of duplication in the two marketing bodies’ marketing activities, and collaboration, where possible.  No further communication has been received in this regard from either body since the meeting last month.

Guy Lundy, CEO of Accelerate Cape Town, an organisation that connects with businesspersons to attract and stimulate economic growth for Cape Town, has criticised the marketing that is being done for Cape Town, reports the Cape Argus.   He too complains that too little marketing is being done, and that which is being done, is wrong, he says.   “Branding Cape Town as Africa’s party city for the World Cup should never have happened”, he said.   “The World Cup is that one opportunity we have to showcase the city to the world.  We don’t want to market ourselves like another Ibiza.”   Lundy says that Cape Town has changed its pay-off line from “Africa’s party capital” to “ready to welcome the world”, a line which was used in a few ads run in the local Cape Town newspapers, without much credibility, given that all the major Cape Town roads, its airport, the Cape Town station, and the rapid bus transport system are not yet ready for the 2010 World Cup!

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During a sport-intensive week and the death of Michael Jackson, a very important announcement by Cape Town Tourism, as well as a “Joint statement: City of Cape Town and Western Cape Provincial Government”, about the execution of a joint ‘Strategic Destination Marketing Plan’ by Cape Town Tourism and Cape Town Routes Unlimited, did not receive the attention it deserved from the tourism industry.

Designed to eliminate the duplication of marketing activity between the two tourism marketing bodies, a meeting was set up to focus on the growth of visitors to Cape Town and the Western Cape, and to ensure that tourism withstands political changes.

Cape Town Tourism’s mandate to market Cape Town has been extended by another year, Cape Town Tourism’s Mariette du Toit-Helmbold announced in her statement.

The statement released by the City and the Province was the following:

Joint Statement: City of Cape Town and Western Cape Provincial Government

The City of Cape Town and the Provincial Government of the Western Cape met on Monday, 22 June and agreed to jointly develop a sustainable solution to market Cape Town and the Western Cape as a globally competitive tourism destination. The discussions were hosted by the Western Cape Minister for Finance, Economic Development and Tourism, Mr Alan Winde and the City’s Mayoral Committee Member for Economic Development and Tourism, Alderman Felicity Purchase.

Also present at the meeting were the Chairpersons and Chief Executive Officers of Cape Town Routes Unlimited (CTRU) and Cape Town Tourism (CTT). Winde said: “The opportunity to find a lasting solution to manage tourism for destination Cape Town and the Western Cape has never been better. There is a need for all spheres of government to work together so that an environment can be created for business and residents to work in partnership with us. We have given the mandate to the officials to jointly develop a lasting solution for tourism marketing. It is important that the solution is able to withstand changes in political leadership and ensures no duplication.”

Ald Purchase added: “The Fifa 2010 World Cup is around the corner and we should not allow this opportunity to be missed. The City will, in the meantime, continue to use CTT to provide Destination Marketing and Visitor Services…”.

The timeframe for developing a sustainable model will be nine months and the key focus will be on how to best increase the number of visitors to Cape Town and the Western Cape.

Ald Purchase further said: “Both the City and Province agreed that it is important to be open minded about the outcome…Ultimately, we would like to see government provide an enabling environment for the tourism sector to grow and create more jobs in the economy. It is therefore important for the proposed solution to provide business and other key stakeholders with an opportunity to contribute resources and participate in the decision making”.

During the meeting both the City of Cape Town and the Provincial Government of the Western Cape agreed that the Constitution would provide the guiding foundation for the appropriate solution. Both parties also acknowledged that the proposed solution would inform possible legislative changes that are required for tourism to grow.

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The tenth Cape Town International Jazz festival takes place at a variety of venues this weekend, with a line-up of top jazz artists set to entertain the 32 000 jazz fans.

Top jazz artists such as Freshlyground, Kyle Eastwood (son of Clint Eastwood, who is in Cape Town shooting a movie about the Rugby World Cup 1995), Shakatak, Abigail Khubeka, Goldfish, Hugh Masekela, Jonathan Butler, and the Stylistics will be performing at Rosies, Kippies, Basil ‘Manenberg’ Coetzee, Bassline and Moses Molekwa.

“The International Jazz Festival is an important event for Cape Town’s tourism sector too.   Visitors to the festival fill the city’s hotels and restaurants and create a spotlight on Cape Town.   The Cape Town Jazz Festival is an important international event that has a long history within our democracy. In fact, it is an event that really celebrates the triumph of our country through its multi-cultural, multi-national line-up. People from far and wide come to our city to listen to the legends of jazz and Cape Town itself is so much richer for the presence of these talented people. The tourism sector benefits hugely through increased occupancies and other activities”, says Mariette du Toit-Helmbold, CEO of Cape Town Tourism.  

Cape Town Routes Unlimited estimates that the Jazz Festival generates R 430 million for the economy of the Western Cape. 

More details are available at www.capetownjazzfest.com.

S A Tourism and Cape Town Tourism worked hard in marketing the country at the ITB travel and tourism expo in Berlin, which was held earlier this month.

According to TravelHub,  S A Tourism launched the new ‘Voices’ advertising campaign, which sees Germans being asked to relate their positive experiences of South Africa.    It is planned to have over a million Germans talking positively about South Africa by June 2010.

FIFA and the Local Organising Committee for the 2010 World Cup used ITB as a platform to encourage and inform the German market about the event, reassuring them about the country’s readiness, infrastructure and sustainability, the report says.

S A Tourism won third prize for its ‘Numbers’ ad in the Golden Gate international film advertising awards competition at ITB.

Cape Town Tourism too was active at ITB, and its CEO Mariette du Toit-Helmbold reported back on the successes her association achieved:    Cape Town Tourism was invited to present its visitor services and marketing innovation to the World Tourism Organisation International Destination Council;   the 2010 World Cup mascot Zakumi was used in a competition, in which ITB attendees could be photographed with Zakumi, post it on the Cape Town Tourism website with a creative comment about Cape Town, to win two tickets for the 2010 World Cup, resulting in 200 images being received;   via a German PR company, Cape Town Tourism’s PR and Communications Manager met 15  journalists individually, presented its marketing toolkit to Dr Michael Kaiser from News Corporation Germany, who will do a presentation on Cape Town to the German Press Club,  Suedafrika magazine will do a free two-page spread on Cape Town, and a free feature on Cape Town will appear in the bi-annual German 1 Golf publication.  

In addition, Cape Town Tourism will be running a winter promotion on Expedia; an educational campaign with FTI, Germany’s third largest tour operator, was concluded;  joint marketing agreements were concluded with Tripadvisor, Google, and BBC News on-line; an agreement was reached with Petit Fute to develop a French guide book for Cape Town;  and assistance will be provided in the production of the official 2010 FIFA World Cup documentary.

However, Cape Town Routes Unlimited Marketing executive David Frandsen, on his return from ITB, has predicted that leisure tourism from Germany will decline by 20 % in the coming season.   He based his forecast on the 30 % drop in bookings received by the top five German tour operators making bookings in South Africa, in January and February this year.    He said however that 200 smaller special tour operators are making up for the decline in bookings received from the big tour operators.   Namibia is attracting bookings from the German market, and has become a trendy destination for Germans.

Media reports earlier this week have sown confusion about who is handling the marketing of Cape Town.

The Cape Times reported that the marketing of Cape Town had only been awarded to Cape Town Tourism (CTT) for a six month period, in a caretaking role, until “the city could find a permanent solution”, according to the City’s Theuns Vivian, of its Economic , Social Development and Tourism department.    The City acknowledged that it was unable to do the marketing of Cape Town internally.   Confusion was particularly created with the paragraph:”The consultants said that while there was some advantage in keeping CTT as the marketing agency, it could create confusion.  CTT was also not “currently geared” to act as destination marketing organisation.”

This paragraph reflects in part the criticsm of the City’s decision to withdraw its funding of Cape Town Routes Unlimited in July last year, as voiced by the province MEC Garth Strachan.

The Cape Argus wrote that the City was looking for an external body to market Cape Town.  It also referred to Cape Town Tourism conducting this task for the City “in the interim”.

Members of Cape Town Tourism voted last year to change the Constitution of Cape Town Tourism, to allow it to take on the marketing role for the City.  

Mariette du Toit-Helmbold, CEO of Cape Town Tourism, reacted to the Cape Times article by saying that “it is a misrepresentation by a journalist of the City’s public participation process undertaken to determine whether  marketing and visitor services must be outsourced or internalized in future.”    The City had approved the outsourcing of the marketing this week.   “I have double checked with Mansoor Mohammed (head of the City’s tourism department),  and he has put the story into perspective.  He has promised to address a letter of clarification to me for interested parties.  We will not respond to the media on this, although we know that bad reporting does a lot of damage to the industry and can create unnecessary confusion.’ she wrote.

Du Toit-Helmbold did indicate that Cape Town Tourism does have to apply, through an open tender, to be appointed the marketing agency for the City, in order to prevent any future questions about the legality of the appointment.  While this process is in place, the appointment of Cape Town Tourism is contractually agreed until 30 June 2009, with the view that the public participation process will have been completed, and Cape Town Tourism can then be appointed on a three year contract.

Cape Town Tourism is in full swing in offering Marketing services for Cape Town, according to its contract with the City and the mandate from its members to do so.

In the mean time, the City’s Economic Development and Tourism department has been found to ”not be up to its task”, reports the Cape Argus, and therefore a R 1,2 million review is to be undertaken of the department’s activities.   Called Project Rejuvenate, the organisation structure of the department is inadequate in allowing the Department to meet its mandate.   The project includes retraining existing staff and sourcing new staff.