PART THREE:  KEY LEARNINGS AND SUCCESSES FOR CAPE TOWN
19 March 2009

The world’s top travel show, ITB Berlin 2009, has come to an end and the World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) is sticking to its end-January 2009 forecast that international tourist arrivals could drop by up to 2% this year.

A sense of realistic optimism prevails, however. “This is not a tourism crisis. It’s an economic crisis which spills over into tourism,” said Taleb Rifai, secretary-general ad interim. Tourism is linked to many economic sectors.

Europe’s tourism industry will likely see the largest drop in visitors, but small countries dependent on foreign spending might suffer most, Rifai said. He also said that Europeans and Americans were likely to keep to their plans to travel abroad. “In the past 20 years, travel has become more of a right,” he said. “The right to move around and the right to relax.”

The UNWTO hosted the second meeting of its Tourism Resilience Committee at ITB, aiming to send a message to world leaders that they should put travel and tourism at the centre of their stimulus packages.

“We believe that if tourism is supported by governments and handled correctly, it can help to stimulate economic recovery,” Rifai said. “When they think of tourism, we want governments to think of incentives, not taxes,” he added.

City tours are a great way to see the Mother City, photo courtesy David Hearle aka etravelguide

In my opinion some of the key points of learning for Cape Town are:

• Those destinations and organisations that can adapt through innovation and effective public-private partnerships will come out stronger to lead the way to a new era in tourism.
• We should investigate new models, rethink traditional spending and place more emphasis on strategic partnerships and networks.
• We should continue investing in marketing, but in an extraordinary way, and allow for no wastage.
• We should think global, but act local.
• We should identify our window of opportunity and activate it effectively and creatively.
• Government must give tourism the space to play as a serious economic stimulus. It is not about bail-outs, but rather about creating an enabling environment.
• As a destination, we must develop a price strategy and manage it. We must focus on creating more value and retain high standards. It is impossible to recover from a “cheap” image.
• We must collaborate and invest in joint marketing efforts.

As a member of the UNWTO International Destination Council, I was asked to present Cape Town’s position and resilience strategy in relation to the economic and climate challenges to an audience of global tourism and travel leaders at ITB.

I used the 2010 FIFA World Cup, the Green Economy (with emphasis on the 2010 Green Goal and Cape Town’s Responsible Tourism Plan) as well as Cape Town’s remarkable value-for-money offering to illustrate the window of opportunity amid tough global times. The new tactics identified within Cape Town Tourism’s marketing strategy are in line with the UNWTO Roadmap for Recovery and “new marketing innovation”. 

The Council commended Cape Town Tourism’s bold use of e-marketing and technology, innovative and best practice visitor services and the empowerment of citizens and the tourism industry as brand evangelists for Cape Town in the run up to the 2010 FIFA World Cup.
The fact that Cape Town was selected from hundreds of other destinations as a best practice example of visitor services and marketing innovation in the current global tourism environment is a huge vote of confidence from the international sector.
The rest of the Cape Town Tourism team engaged with hundreds of delegates, members of the media and consumers at the Cape Town stand.

Two key ways of generating brand awareness for Cape Town as a 2010 FIFA World Cup host city were a web-based competition using the official 2010 mascot, Zakumi, and collaboration with one of Germany’s largest PR companies, Hansman PR Travel Talk.

Trade, media and the general public were encouraged to have their pictures taken with Zakumi and then advised to go to http://www.capetown.travel/itb to find their picture, add a creative comment about Cape Town and stand the chance of winning two tickets to the 2010 FIFA World Cup, including accommodation and transport.

More than 200 images were uploaded to the ITB gallery and, for the duration of the ITB web campaign, Germany jumped from tenth to fourth place in the number of unique visits to http://www.capetown.travel, after South Africa, the USA and UK. The average length of stay on the site for users from Germany over this time was 09:17 minutes, up from the global average 03:48 minutes. Also, German visitors visited 5.67 pages on average, compared to the site average of 3.11 pages. Overall, individual pages containing ITB-related content, have already been viewed about 2000 times.

All competition entrants have been added to Cape Town Tourism’s visitor database for future e-marketing campaigns.

Cape Town Tourism partnered with Hansman PR, a well-established German tourism and sports PR agency, to engage with specific media. Nicole Moody, PR and Communications Manager, attended the special two-hour “Travel Talk” event and met more than 15 members of the media individually. The focus of discussions was the 2010 FIFA World Cup and Cape Town’s readiness as a host city. Other topics included wellness tourism, golf and spa tourism and cultural tourism. 

The 2010 FIFA World Cup mascot, Zakumi, was very popular at ITB Berlin 2009

Some direct results of “Travel Talk” are:
• An agreement for a series of radio slots on a leading German radio station, Multicult20, for the rest of 2009, focused on Cape Town and its offerings
• A presentation on Cape Town using Cape Town Tourism’s marketing toolkit by Dr Michael R Kaiser from News Corporation Germany, to 350 members of the German Press Club
• A two-page feature on Cape Town in the Sud-Afrika magazine before June 9 at no cost
• A press trip for German journalists writing for two of Germany’s major newspapers
• A feature on Cape Town as a premier golf and spa destination in the widely distributed German 1 Golf bi-annual publication at no charge.

These are some of Cape Town’s many successes at ITB:

• Cape Town Tourism engaged with and secured a database of more than120 combined trade and media contacts. We also engaged with more than 100 consumers on visiting Cape Town.
• Online campaign secured with Expedia to the value of R1 000 000, focused on driving the UK market to Cape Town during our off-peak period.
• Educational campaign secured with FTI, Germany’s third-largest tour operator, for all their agents.
• Two campaigns secured with Myriad Marketing Solutions focused on the US trade and in particular the gay traveller market to the value of R500 000.
• Joint marketing agreement concluded with Tripadvisor to the value of R500 000.
• Joint marketing agreement concluded with Google.
• Agreement reached with Triplib, a German social networking site focused on travel, to run competitions based on user-generated content, to the value of R500 000.
• Joint marketing agreement reached with BBC World News to market Cape Town online.
• Agreement reached with SAA Frankfurt to cover the cost of flights for German media and trade trips to Cape Town.
• Cape Town Tourism to assist Peter den Hartogh with the official documentary on 2010 FIFA World Cup to be screened worldwide during 2010 – arranging all aspects of filming, including preferred locations.
• Agreement reached with Petit Fute, leading French guide book series, to develop a French guide book specifically for Cape Town.

The team reflected that:

• Trade, media and public interest for Cape Town remains very high.
• Mainstream packages are less popular than requests for tailor-made itineraries with both the public and the trade.
• Authentic experiences are important.
• Luxury experiences are in demand.
• Personal safety and health considerations come first.
• German travellers have a renewed interest in travel to the US (since the election of Barack Obama) and we will be vying for their loyalty – German travel to the US increased by 19.4% and decreased to SA by 6% in the period January-November 2008.
• The well-travelled 60+ generation is less likely to be affected by the economic crisis, thanks to their conservative investments, and should be actively pursued.

See part one and part two of Mariëtte du Toit-Helmbold’s ITB report.

The Grand Daddy, photo courtesy The Grand Daddy Hotel website

In the lead-up to 2010, there is a growing demand for accommodation in Cape Town. The Mother City has added 1 100 new hotel rooms in the past five years, which means a 45% growth in capacity. At least nine more new hotels will open by 2010.

New hotels

• The Grand Daddy – a playful, contemporary four-star hotel in Long Street
• The Penthouse Aistream Trailer Park – this unique collection of overhauled vintage Airstream Trailers is housed on the rooftop of the Grand Daddy
• Cape Diamond Hotel – a four-star hotel with an art deco-style Theatre Cafe in the east city, near Parliament
• The Fountain Hotel – situated in Lower St George’s Mall
• The North Wharf Protea Hotel – situated in the Foreshore
• Five-star serviced apartments at Mandela Rhodes Place close to Greenmarket Square
• Protea Hotel Colosseum – mid-market and central
• Cape Royale – a boutique hotel in Green Point, near the Waterfront
• Asara Wine Estate & Hotel – an indulgent getaway in the Winelands
• The Kings Hotel – boutique and stylish, in Sea Point
• The Harbour Bridge Hotel and Suites – excellent for work or play, on the fringe of the V&A Waterfront
• Majeka House – a new luxury offering in the winelands, Stellenbosch
• Dock House – luxuriously appointed boutique hotel in the heart of the V&A Waterfront

Planned V&A hotel developments

• The Grain Silo Complex will be developed into a mixed-use building and is planned to include a 160-room four-star hotel, retail and appropriate ancillary services.

Ultra-luxury hotels

In 2009 two extreme luxury hotels, or six-star hotels, will be opened in Cape Town:

• Sol Kerzner’s One & Only hotel in the V&A Waterfront, which will boast a Cape Town arm of the internationally acclaimed restaurant, Nobu
• Taj Palace Hotel in St George’s Mall, near the Mandela Rhodes Place

Other hotels due to open in Cape Town

The Coral International Hotel, Cape Town’s first dry hotel has commenced construction on the corner of Buitengracht & Wale Street.

The five star Oscar Pearse Hotel on the corner of Burg and Castle Street in the inner-city began construction at the end of 2007.

Recently opened in the tranquil Constantia Valley (a suburb of Cape Town), Nova Constantia Boutique Residence is a new hotel offering just eight exclusive suites to ensure utter privacy

15 On Orange is an upmarket hotel opening at the end of 2009.

Rezidor Hotel Group is opening ten new hotels in Africa in 2009, including The Blaauwberg, which opens in Milnerton on the West Coast.

The Cape Town Tourism stand at ITB

PART TWO:  GLOBAL TRAVEL AND TOURISM TRENDS AND FORECASTS

The economic crisis remained the dominant theme throughout the ITB conferences, which ran parallel with the exhibition, with new trends, strategies and predictions for the future debated at length.

I have summarised some of the aspects that are most relevant and that can be applied as key learnings for Cape Town as we lead the way to a new way of doing business in tourism.

In PART THREE of my ITB Report I will expand upon the key learnings for Cape Town and the business and marketing tactics Cape Town Tourism presented to the International Destination Council at ITB as part of our resilience strategy.

On the opening day of ITB, Dr Auliana Poon of Tourism Intelligence International led a discussion on Best Practice in Destination Marketing. Her focus was on the role that the private sector could play in the current tough economic times, saying that “the tourism sector now needs dynamic private-public sector organisations that can take the lead with extraordinary marketing and business strategy, innovation and the exploitation of distribution channels”.  She singled out South Africa and Costa Rica as international best practice tourism models because “they care” about the community and the environment.

Rolf Freitag of IPK International presented the official ITB Travel Trends Report. He illustrated how the “consumer greed of the recent years has turned into consumer fear with mass consumer travel confidence shrinking”.  He went on to say: “Whilst the travel market showed remarkable resilience against challenges like terrorism, natural disaster, SARS and Bird Flu, we now finally have a real global economic crisis.”

Noordhoek: one of Cape Town’s many sunny beaches. Photo courtesy Rob W

Some highlights in 2008 travel patterns to point out are:
• Germany remains the largest outbound market from Europe with 76 million travellers, followed by the UK (65 million) and France (51 million).
• 75% of outbound growth is from six markets: Russia (1,8 million trips), Netherlands (1,1 million trips), Poland (1 million trips), UK (0,8 million trips), Ireland (0,7 million trips) and Greece (0,5 million trips).
• Cruise travel (7% growth) has exceeded plane travel in growth (1%), but low-cost flight trips show strong growth at 4%.
• In 2008, 88% of travel was short haul and 12% long haul.
• The top destinations are now: Spain with 12% of travel market, followed by France with 10% and Germany with 8%.
• Paris remains the top travel city with 12,6% of the world city travel market, followed by London (12,3%), Vienna (5,3%), Rome (5,2%) and Berlin (4,7%).
• The top spending markets are Switzerland, followed by Ireland, Denmark, Norway, the Netherlands, Austria and the UK.
• The internet accounts for 40% of travel bookings, followed by travel agents and direct bookings in second and third place respectively.
• 40% of travellers booked a package or “dynamic package”.
• Holiday bookings online were broken down as follows: 41% (15% growth) booked online, while 15% used the internet for information only (6% growth). Internet users now account for 56% of all travel bookings (12% growth) and non-internet users account for 44% (2% decline).
• Leisure remains the biggest reason for travel with 294 million trips (5% growth), followed by business travel (1% growth) and other leisure travel showing a 4% growth.
• In terms of holiday segments, touring is first (14% growth) followed by city breaks (5% growth), sun and beach (5% growth) and country and nature (2% growth). Four out of 10 people chose sun and beach as the reason for travel in 2008.
• Top language travel groups are: English followed by German, French and Dutch.

ITB 2009 was held at Messe Berlin

The 2009 forecast is grim, with growth predicted to stagnate across most international markets. Some remarks that stood out for me are:

• International Air Transport Association (IATA) flights dropped by 5,6% in January 2009.
• Optimists in the United States believe that we will see recovery by 2009, whilst the experts in Europe believe we will see two meagre years with slow recovery by 2011. The Middle East believes the crisis will last till 2012.
• Four out of 10 Europeans will change their travel behaviour in 2009, which accounts for 41% of the European market. The industry is advised to focus on the more resilient European markets and respond with real value-for-money offerings, because the biggest impact will be on spend.
• Two out of three travellers from North America will change their travel behaviour, whilst South American travel should not be affected negatively, ie will experience a “cooling” not a recession.
• Asia is showing the lowest travel level since 2001 with only China and India still showing growth, but at a reduced speed in 2009. A whopping three out of five travellers will change their travel behavior with less spend and different destination choices being the most significant changes. 
• Not all travel sectors will be affected equally ie:
- less decrease in domestic travel
- slight decrease in outbound to short-haul
- greater decrease in long-haul
- crisis in business and incentive travel

The 2010 World Cup mascot, Zakumi, was very popular at ITB 2009

• 2009 will bring:
- more value-for-money seekers
- more domestic travellers
- more reliance on internet
- more web-meeting technology, forcing the business travel sector to change tactics dramatically

To minimise the impact, Freitag had the following advice:

• Reduce operational costs, but not necessarily staff.
• Launch a world-wide price offensive.
• Communicate new attractions, with authenticity as the key.
• Public-private partnerships and joint marketing agreements are important tactics.
• Use this time to rectify misguided developments.
• Without e-marketing and e-sales your business will disappear.
• Nothing will happen by itself anymore. Innovate, be creative and seduce your customer.
• Develop new markets now.
• Change your tactics.
• Improve your offer sustainably.
• Leverage favourable interest rates for investments.
• Tackle “great new ideas” now.
• Keep on investing.

The message was clear: “Right actions can change the course of the future and ensure that we emerge on the other side stronger and as leaders in the tourism sector.”

The session was followed by an interesting debate led by Geoffrey Lipman of the United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) on tourism’s role within this global financial crisis.

The three key aspects for tourism are resilience, stimulus and investment in innovation, and the green economy.  The importance of a long-term, solution-driven strategy with dynamic short-term actions was highlighted to allow for a quicker recovery without hampering long-term sustainable development within the sector.

“Tourism does not need bail-outs; we must be recognised as a serious contributor to GDP and economic solutions,” said Lipman.

The new traveller wants unusual travel propositions. The new traveller wants to be the decision maker and places a lot of emphasis on responsible travel, health and wellness.

One thing is certain; people will continue to travel, regardless. However, the customer is trading down – spending less, travelling closer to home and staying for a shorter period.

The message above all else was optimism. There is significant room for growth within the tourism sector, unlike many other sectors. But the question is: are we ready for the new traveller and can we adapt our businesses to the new trends?

The beauty of Cape Town, photo courtesy flickrbug

Dieter Semmelroth, head of finance for TUI AG, pointed out that the percentage of Germans wanting to travel has dropped from 67% to 64%. He said that there is a big demand for good-quality experiences and value for money. No one can afford to travel for the sake of travel any more. He cautioned that it will get worse before it gets better, but that by next year the industry could expect a small increase in travellers.

Domestic travel was highlighted as a key growth area and the most important factor in the immediate future is to minimise negative impact.

Lipman concluded that there remains a tiny window of opportunity for the industry. “The travel sector cannot be a passive industry any longer – we must collect, analyse and share best practice.”

Dr Auliana Poon of Tourism Intelligence International advised that the industry should play on the great memories of travellers. “Our message to the world is that travel is good for you. The world needs to travel, especially now. We should show the real value of travel, both from an economic and social perspective.” She also pointed out that “free” is the new “f” word and urged that we should focus on value, because: “It is impossible to recover from a cheap image.”

The final question posed is an important one to ponder for all involved in the tourism sector: should we not consider a serious restructuring of the industry? Should we not think differently and make significant changes now?

My response to that question is simple. “We cannot afford not to.”

See part one and part three of Mariëtte du Toit-Helmbold’s ITB report.

The Cape Town Tourism stand at ITB Berlin 2009

Despite the economic downturn, the 43rd ITB Berlin 2009 opened on 11 March with almost the same number of exhibitors as last year – 11,098 companies from 187 countries.

Whilst issues around climate dominated the agenda in 2008, ITB 2009 was overshadowed by debate on the impact of the global economic crisis on the travel and tourism industry. Whether because of climate or economy (which are inter-related anyhow), one thing is evident: the tourism and travel world will change fundamentally, for good.

Whilst change is not easy, I argue that it is not just essential for survival, but essential for success. I love change – it forces innovation and does away with mediocrity. It allows the maverick and the creative to shine, the extraordinary to thrive. It is an opportunity to unleash your instinctive curiosity and creativity, making full use of the window of opportunity. By merely improving on something old, you have not changed anything. You have to invent, transform and move away from the old, completely!

Outside ITB Berlin 2009

The numerous themes, special days and new initiatives at ITB Berlin reflect the diversity of the travel and tourism industry. Some of the events included a corporate social responsibility day, a travel bloggers’ summit, a business travel forum, an aviation day, a special report on culture and tourism, and a focus on optimising city destinations.

“The many uncertainties within this sector make this outstanding marketplace more important than ever,” Messe Berlin’s Chief Operating Officer, Dr Christian Goke, said at the opening of the event. “Not only are trends on display here, but it is above all a place where business is negotiated at international level.”

The message from the United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) on behalf of its member states and the industry as a whole was clear: put tourism and travel at the core of stimulus packages and the Green New Deal.

They are calling for the industry to join the Roadmap for Recovery.

Taleb Rifai, secretary-general ad interim, underscored that “tourism means trade, jobs, development, cultural sustainability, peace and the fulfilment of human aspirations. If ever there was a time to get this message out loud and clear, it is now, as we meet at a time of over-riding global uncertainty, but also of immense possibilities.”

He echoed the sentiment of world leaders that tell us that we are facing the biggest challenge of the past half-century:

“There is the immediate crisis consisting of a credit crunch, economic disarray, mounting unemployment and recessionary reduction in market confidence, with no telling – for now – how long it will last.

Coupled to the crisis are the long-term systemic imperatives of climate-change response, job creation and poverty alleviation.

This situation puts unrelenting pressure on our customers, our employees, and our markets, driving us to radically alter our existing policies and practices.

Whilst the industry has always demonstrated remarkable resilience in the face of what can only be described as catastrophy, it has always come out stronger and healthier. This juncture seems to be different. The global status of this crisis and unclear parameters necessitate a different mindset.”

Enter the tourism and travel sector’s “Roadmap for Recovery”.

First: We must approach the situation with realism. Markets started to deteriorate in mid-2008. While UNWTO figures show international arrivals hit a record 924-million last year and annual growth of 2%, the second half of the year tracked the monthly decline in macroeconomic results and forecasts. Arrivals experienced negative growth of -1% during the last six months of 2008. The same is true of international receipts: record highs till mid-2008, but rapidly declining second-half growth. This is an indication of the trend forecasted for the current year. This is the reality.

Second: We must take every action to shore up our own defences, so that we can weather the storm and emerge intact and even stronger on the other side when the good times return – as they surely will. We must maintain and preserve, in as much as we can, our valuable structures and trained workforce.

Third: We must also recognise that the measures we need to take now will require unusual action. The complex, interconnected and dynamically unfolding nature of this crisis makes it unpredictable. The future operating patterns for global economies will be vastly different from the past: the very nature of consumerism will change and so will our markets and our prospects. It is the time to revisit our existing structures, policies and practices. It is time for innovations and bold action.

Fourth: In taking these measures we must make use of every advantage. We must harness the immense power of technology, modern communications including the Internet, and the new consumer-orientated marketing to reduce costs, operate with new efficiencies and manage risk in an environment of uncertainty and constant change.

Fifth: We can benefit by putting the tried and tested model of public-private partnerships on the front burner to navigate through the turbulence and beyond. We need to identify best-practice economic and operational models and help embed them in markets around the world. And we need to fight the worst practices like excessive taxes and red tape, complex regulation and duplication that increase our costs and reduce the value of our products. It is time for solidarity.

Sixth: Remind the world and government that “Travel means jobs, infrastructure, trade and development.”

Seventh: Help the poorest grow tourism, fight climate change and advance development.

Lastly: Put tourism and travel at the core of stimulus packages and the Green New Deal. This is even more relevant in a country like South Africa.

As a member of the UNWTO and in particular, the International Destination Council, Cape Town Tourism was invited to present its marketing and business strategy as part of the newly established “Tourism Resilience Committee” agenda at ITB. I will share some further highlights in PART TWO of the ITB Trends and Learnings Report.

In essence the committee focuses on the provision of a framework for better market analysis, collaboration on best practices and policymaking. It will become a continuing focal point for crisis response for the tourism sector around the world.

I echo the message of Mr Rifai: “This is not the time to retract and retrench. It is not about crisis management, but rather opportunity management”

Tourism must be at the heart of stimulus packages because the jobs and trade flows generated by a strong tourism sector as well as business and consumer confidence in travel can and will play a big part in bouncing back from recession and will engineer new opportunities.

We must continue investing in marketing, but not marketing in the traditional sense of the word. These extraordinary times call for extraordinary ideas and action. We must convince decision-makers and governments that spending on tourism promotion can pay massive returns across entire economies because visitors are exports.

We must be at the forefront of innovation and of real solutions to the challenges that face our fragile world.

The UNWTO’s continued commitment to lobby the developed world to help the poorest countries and Africa, in particular, to develop their economies faster and seriously respond to climate change, is commendable.

So, whilst some are hoping for a speedy recovery, I argue that a recovery to what was the past is not what is needed. It would be detrimental to our sector’s future well-being if we returned to the comfortable and now irrelevant past. We need to shape a new destiny and a new roadmap through bold leadership and innovation. The solutions to current challenges and the key to future success do not lie in our past. I do not want to see Cape Town recover; I want Cape Town to lead the way to a new dawn. I want radical change!

Along our journeys, Cape Town Tourism has learned that leading the way is not safe, but we remain committed to being relevant and remarkable. Michael Schrage says in his book, Serious Play: “Those who are willing to invest in and test unproven ideas, based on a hunch or a gut reaction, are likely to find their noses bloodied, routinely. But, by the act, they increase the odds, dramatically, of joining the small set of true world beaters who shape tomorrow’s extraordinary contours.”

See part two and part three of Mariëtte du Toit-Helmbold’s ITB report.

Cape Point, photo courtesy Pet_r

Cape Town is one of the world’s most naturally beautiful and authentic cities; a dramatic meeting place between the iconic Table Mountain and the vast expanses of surrounding ocean at the tip of Africa.

National Geographic Traveler included Cape Town in their 50 Places of a Lifetime selection, Conde Nast Traveler calls it the “Top City in Africa & the Middle East” (fourth in the world) and The UK Telegraph voted Cape Town their “Favourite Foreign City”.

Sunshine, vast skies, Blue Flag beaches, excellent food, abundant wine, world-class accommodation and a diverse melting pot of cultures all give Cape Town an allure unlike any city on earth.

The Mother City, as Cape Town is fondly known, has a sophisticated and contemporary urban infrastructure, which is undergoing further expansion and upgrades ahead of the forthcoming 2010 Fifa World Cup.

Cape Town is a host city during this prestigious event and is being dubbed the “party and lifestyle capital” of the World Cup – the place to stay and to celebrate the spirit of the games in style.

Cape Town offers diverse attractions from awe-inspiring sight-seeing and interesting cultural tours, theatre and events, to excellent fine dining, exclusive sports events and world-class shopping.

Take a trip through the winelands in a vintage Rolls Royce or a helicopter flip with a breath-taking bird’s eye view over the Peninsula. Sip champagne laced with gold leaf at The Gold of Africa Museum, shop for diamonds or get the adrenalin racing with a flight in an ex-military jet. Cape Town could even be your starting point for a luxury train safari to Dar-es-Salaam.

Cape Town is a city of contrasts and tells a tale of two cities: one that boasts a thriving creative economy, a premier tourist destination status and incredible natural beauty, juxtaposed with a city of social problems and poverty directly related to our colourful past and troubled history. But, walking the streets of Cape Town and meeting the people you will fall in love with a city of hope, creative freedom and incredible spirit.

While some experiences may be beyond the average budget, Cape Town is a playground for those holding strong currencies. Restaurants serve excellent fresh food. A main course can range between R50 and R150 ($5.2 – $15.69) depending on where you choose to dine. A bottle of wine could be anywhere from R60 ($6.2) for the ordinary (but good) to R400 ($41.8).

Hotel prices range from budget at $36.60 -$111.30 per person per night to luxury at upwards of $523.01 per person per night. Trips and tours are professionally run, interesting and cost-effective.

Day trips around the scenic Cape Peninsula come will cost you about $53.30 per person. A day-long Township Tour (including a visit to Robben Island, the prison where Nelson Mandela was incarcerated) will set you back around $63, whilst a leisurely day in the Winelands will be about $51.22. All members of Cape Town Tourism comply with strict quality criteria.

Cape Town has a pleasant, moderate climate but is still warm and dry enough to allow a rewarding outdoor lifestyle nearly all year round.

Health and wellness is important to Capetonians and excellent health clubs, spas and cosmetic facilities are of an international standard. World-class private clinics ensure that all minor and emergency medical treatment is assured.

In 2002, Newsweek called Cape Town a new Mecca of creative talent.

“The new centres of culture and vitality are far from New York, Paris and London ... These funky towns can be found in the most unlikely places … People come to live life to the full, to be a ‘player’, to be where the action is, to walk the streets and feel what it is like to be on the edge of what’s possible ... ”

Cape Town is such a place. We invite you to come and find your soul, lose your heart and linger for as long as you like. You will discover a city like no other.

Please note: All cost estimates mentioned above were based on an exchange rate of $10.31 to the South African Rand.

Four top online agency leaders sharing their thoughts and insights about e-Marketing

With all the complexity of the search-shop-buy process for travel, tourism and hospitality companies to master, the challenge for online agencies has also dramatically increased. These marketing, communications and creative agencies help build brands, find customers, manage reputations and convert awareness into profitable purchases. They are also expected to keep up with technology and guide their clients in its relevance, use, application and return on investment (ROI) expectations – which is a big “ask”.

This afternoon I sat in on a round-table session with four leaders of top global agencies who are big players in travel, tourism and hospitality. The more that travel goes digital, the bigger a role these online agencies play when compared to traditional print and broadcast creative agencies. They had some interesting insights, war stories and warnings about the future.

What are the key advantages of online media? It’s a quick and responsive medium, for example, in disposing of perishable inventory, changing copy or creative materials based on performance data.

What is the difference in marketing tourism products and services compared to those in other industries? Social media is much more relevant and effective in promoting a destination, even more than paid advertising.

How is it different to market to a travel consumer as opposed to other consumers? They tend to be early adopters in terms of technology, which makes it a challenge for travel companies to keep pace with the technology and the implementation of it.

What is a primary challenge you face in creating online experiences in tourism? There is an inherent tension between the choices you want to offer to consumers (and that they want and expect) versus the “perishability” of the product you have to sell before it’s value disappears (like empty beds in a hotel or seats in a tour bus).

Are branded company websites no longer the most valuable online presence? Companies need to keep a balance of a centralised, branded website, distributed participation in social media, and promotional (campaign oriented or time-bound) websites

Do videos raise conversion rates in tourism? Yes, if you have an audience segment that is known to consume video. Video is working well for retail more broadly online, and tourism businesses can watch their experiments and innovation and choose models that seem to work.

How do companies monitor and track their brand appearing in cutting-edge social media? Twitter integrated into Google will make a real difference, and should be coming soon in 2009. This will, however, remain a challenge more broadly.

One other interesting source of innovation is coming from labs.lastminute.com. One important pilot is “nru” or “near you” - a mobile application for GPS-enabled mobile phones that shows bars, cafés, restaurants, cinemas, events that are near to where you physically are in a city. Available in London only, but a test market that should be expanded to other cities in 2009 and 2010.

Round-table participants:

• Justin Cooke, MD, Fortune Cookie (UK) Ltd – build a lot of websites for big travel industry companies
• Kais Makhlouf, VP of strategic partnerships and emerging platforms for Nurun – big global agency, based in Canada
• Marco Tosi, MD, LBi IconMedialab – big, European and American online agency, headquartered in Amsterdam
• Isabell Wagner, MD (Germany), bigmouthmedia GmbH –  specialists in SEO, display and affiliate marketing

Travellers are turning to social media to help make decisions about their next trip. Photo courtesy Corvair Owner

A round-table discussion at PhoCusWright@ITB was held this morning with the leaders of four social media companies. They aimed to unpack the difficulties of finding, organising and matching relevant user-generated content with the individual preferences of the traveller. There is so much information out there from diverse sources and of varied quality that the traveller can easily be overwhelmed. The opportunity for companies lies in helping the traveller manage this plethora of information.

The round-table included the online giant Lonely Planet, an innovative trip planning start-up called Tripwolf, a niche social media company, HotelVideoReviews.com, and a social media networking travel site called Where Are You Now? (WAYN) – making for an interesting, diverse and knowledgeable bunch.

Unfortunately, the discussion battled to do much more than define the challenge and the opportunity: making all this user-generated content relevant, and making money by doing so.

Now, this “problem statement” is useful, because we need to understand where things are now and where they’re headed. We’re a long way, however, from dealing with this problem. The massive diversity of user-generated content sources and the sheer volume of it are one side of the issue. The other side being the credibility and quality of the content source - who is posting this material and why? Are they paid to post it by a company? Do they have an axe to grind? Are they just making things up for kicks?

These are non-trivial problems to solve. And with a billion people on Earth able to contribute content through mobile applications on cell phones as well as through PCs and laptops, the problem isn’t going to get any easier. For those tracking such matters, the Semantic Web will likely help, but won’t make the problem go away – but that is a lengthy and technical side-discussion for another time.

My take-away from this session is that a great deal of energy, investment and innovation is going to take place around this two-part issue of relevance and credibility. It’s one to watch closely, because a solution will mean that an entirely new category of business value will be unlocked for travel companies.

Miss World snuggles up to Zakumi

Zakumi and I started our journey at Cape Town International Airport where we were met by broad smiles, some squeezing of furry paws and lots of questions! The cheeky-looking 2010 FIFA World Cup mascot was about to embark on his first international journey and was determined to make the most of it! Customs officials held up the bag-checking process to have their pictures taken with Zakumi, while our fellow queuing passengers smiled indulgently.

The usually stoic atmosphere of the departures hall was replaced with boisterous laughter, plenty of patriotic “thumbs up” by fellow South Africans and barely contained curiosity by visiting foreigners. I was already having a blast!

My nervousness at how my popular not-so-little friend was going to be accommodated on the plane swiftly dissipated as the cabin crew “oohed”, “aahed” and promptly provided our budding star with his own sleeping quarters – seatbelt and all. And so our long flight to London (where we’d hop onto another plane for Berlin) began.

We received a similar welcome at Heathrow, although I can’t say that some of our fellow passengers enjoyed the same courtesy. And people say our customs officials are unfriendly? Clearly they haven’t been to the UK lately! We were soon aboard another British Airways plane, with some more Zakumi-induced super hospitality, and on our way to Berlin.

The rest of that day is a bit of a blur after the long flight, but one thing’s for sure: Zakumi, and particularly the World Cup he represents, has managed to generate excitement across continents, through language barriers and amongst South Africans and foreigners alike.

There is no doubt in my mind (and I’m sure Zakumi shares this sentiment) that the 2010 FIFA World Cup is going to be one that the world will never forget!

We attended a welcome function at the South African (SA) embassy in Tiergarten, Berlin, on Monday night.

The function, hosted by the SA Embassy in Berlin at their stately abode, was well attended by some 200 SA tourism officials attending ITB. After the SA Ambassador to Germany, Eddie Funde, welcomed the group, a well-presented and concise (six minutes to be precise) speech by Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism, Marthinus van Schalkwyk followed.

Van Schalkwyk highlighted the increase of Germans travelling to the US after renewed faith in the country since the Obama election and noted the 6.5% decrease in German visits to SA in the fourth quarter of last year, largely due to the global economic downturn.

The subsequent speaker, Annamarie Ferns( head of South African Tourism Germany), stressed the importance of continuing to deploy SA marketing efforts in the German market in order to stabilise and grow numbers pre-, during and post-2010. She then presented SAT’s German focussed “khaki” campaign, which centres on the promotion of South Africa as an exciting adventure destination through a number of mediums, including television and print.

The first day at ITB:

Within the first 30 minutes of arriving at the Cape Town booth on the SAT, Zakumi and the Cape Town Tourism team were interviewed for German television and captured on camera by no less than eight international journalists. The popularity of the Cape Town booth continued in a non-stop stream of media and travel trade from across the globe for the duration of the day.

The topic on everyone’s lips, no matter the language in which it was uttered, was unanimous – Cape Town – the host city for the 2010 FIFA World Cup.

Comments on Cape Town’s state of readiness as well as its overwhelming appeal as a “must see” destination, both during and after the World Cup, were positive.

Eva Fernandez Vallejo, general manager of Spanish-based travel agency, MasQueSol, said, “So many people in Spain are excited about the World Cup and they all want to stay in Cape Town.” Vallejo, who has not yet visited Cape Town or SA, will be hosted in Cape Town by Cape Town Tourism later this year to ensure that she is able to sell the destination enthusiastically from personal experience.

Peter den Hartogh of Hartogh Productions in Germany visited the stand to meet with the team, as he will arrive in Cape Town in April to film the Cape Town part of “African Dream” – a documentary about the World Cup and Sepp Blatter, which will be released worldwide in June 2010.

Cape Town Tourism is arranging film permits and ensuring that as many of Cape Town’s unique experiences as possible are showcased in the film. Meetings held by Cape Town Tourism with travel trade saw the team meeting with representatives from the UAE, UK, the Netherlands, France, India, Romania and Thailand.

The “You’ve been snapped” campaign leapt off to a fantastic start with more than 30 pictures being taken in the first four hours. Trade and media are invited to have their picture taken with the 2010 mascot, after which they receive a card informing them that they’ve been “snapped with Zakumi” and encouraging them to find their pic on www.capetown.travel/itb.

Once they’ve located their picture, they simply need to click on it, enter their details and a comment containing the words, “I love Cape Town because…”

Participants stand the chance of winning two tickets to a World Cup game in Cape Town, as well as accommodation and transport.

On Thursday 12 March, Cape Town Tourism is participating in a media talk to some 100 German and Austrian journalists. The topic, of course, will be Cape Town – 2010 and beyond!

A snapshot of the twitter conversation carried on in multiple parallel threads, captured via TweetDeck

The ITB Conference session on e-Travel had an interesting panel discussion about social media and the trends that are most likely to affect the tourism industry over the next year or two.  It is a rapidly developing confluence of technology, content, business models and participants that is hard for any one person or company to keep a handle on, so having several leading minds talking through the latest developments and their uses (and relevance) provided some meaningful insight.

What is social media, you ask? It includes user-generated content like Facebook, blogs, comments, reviews and ratings. It includes the sharing of that content through social bookmarking sites (like Digg and Del.icio.us), YouTube, Flickr and other sites. And it includes decentralised, informal interactions between and among users like Twitter, MXit, Skype and other media.

The panellists were an interesting group:

Darren Cronian, Proprietor, www.travel-rants.com (a classic independent blogger)
Klaus Hildebrandt, Editor in Chief, FVW international, www.fvw.de/blog (big traditional media house)
Kevin May, Editor, www.travolution.co.uk/blog (sharp speciality online media)
Martin Schorbert, Head of R&D and CIO, Austrian Tourism, www.blog.austria.info (a destination marketing organisation (DMO))
Vasco Sommer-Nunes, Founder, mokono GmbH, mokono.blog.de (a network of consumer travel blogs)

From a broad discussion of possible forces at work and their comparative relevance, they reached consensus on the top three trends for travel, tourism and hospitality in fairly short order. So what are the top 3?

1. A change in corporate strategic philosophy as CEOs in 2009 start to “get” social media
2. Companies begin to hire dedicated social media experts as part of their communications teams
3. PR begins to use more channels of social media, viewing it as another aspect of reputation management, crisis communications, and stakeholder engagement. No longer a “techie” or niche channel.

A couple of interesting observations: none of these is a technology (even though trend number 4 was the rise of Twitter and the “twitterati”). They’re all about strategy and the applications of technology. If these trends are on the mark it puts pressure on CEOs to get comfortable with these technologies and the culture that surrounds them.

Another observation is that South Africans are big MXit users, which may well stand in the way of Twitter. Will MXit integrate with Twitter? Will the big global appeal of Twitter kill MXit? Or will we have parallel social media networks?

What was interesting about all this was the parallel discussion and critique that was happening via twitter while this list was being worked out. If you’re tweet-savvy, take a look via TweetDeck at #ITB09 to see what was happening – very interesting dynamics.

PhoCusWright CEO, Philip Wright, giving the Blogger’s Summit the inside scoop on the research trends

Direct from PhoCusWright’s CEO Philip Wolf, here are the driving forces of change for travel technology through 2009 and into 2010. He’s been at this game since 1994 and is one of the top authorities on the topic. His top trends? Money, media, mobile and moxie.

Here’s the detailed low-down.

Money: Yes, companies without serious business models or real value to add will get snuffed out in a struggling economy. This trend, however, is not just about which companies have money in the bank or can keep cash flowing, but which are able to take advantage of very inexpensive debt and leverage it to gain advantage on their competition. While a broad analysis of the market indicates a general decline in business, PhoCusWright’s more detailed analysis shows that 70% of companies are hurting, 10% are holding their own, and 20% are innovating and investing like mad, seizing opportunities and moving boldly because they have access to money and the nerve (moxie) to use it.

Media: This refers to not just the traditional newspaper websites, but any platform that brings buyers and sellers together to do a transaction. Media attracts both and puts them together. Online media is “wreaking havoc” in the industry. For example, Travelocity (owned by Sabre) has worldwide employees numbering around 5,000. More air travel searches, however, are being done by consumers on Kayak and they have just 76 employees. Quick maths: nearly 66 times the number of employees, and all the costs associated with it. Media innovation (often through new search technologies) will continue to force the existing garde to adapt and will keep undercutting their profits. Result: a very dynamic and competitive marketplace at the moment.

Mobile: Wolf likened 2009 to 1995, which was the year that big companies began to build their first websites and to take the medium seriously. According to him, 2009 will be the year that established companies in the travel industry will roll out mobile applications. There are a lot of smart mobile handsets in the hands of many of people, and this opportunity won’t be overlooked any longer. As with the 1995 trend of the corporates taking their printed brochures and turning them into static websites, most companies will take their existing websites and just adapt them to mobile apps (applications) in 2009. The innovators, however, will invest in meaningful applications that take advantage of locational information (GPS data), user-generated content, multimedia content and the prevalence of Wi-Fi (wireless) and 3G networks and change the game. We have yet to see the Expedia and TripAdvisor of mobile apps, but they may well become known during 2009, even if they don’t go big just yet.

Moxie: Wolf defines this as “vigor, verve, pep, courage, nerve, skill, know-how”. Real leaders will be the ones cutting operating costs to keep profitable while investing in capital projects (like mobile apps). The key quote here: “Companies working hard to defend their place in the market and do so successfully will probably find that, once the turnaround begins and the tide begins to rise, they’ll have defended a space that is out of date or out of sync with the market.”

So what does Wolf look at to see whether the tide is turning? He speaks about watching the average hours worked per week by hourly workers (new hires are a lagging indicator), hiring of temporary workers, increases in orders – pretty basic macro-economic indicators. Having said that, he also feels that the turnaround will come faster than ever before once these indicators have been sighted and a positive trend is even vaguely clear.

For all the current gloom, PhoCusWright is bullish and believe 2009 will be an exciting year, one that brings advantage to companies and organisations with strategic moxie and the money to act.

PhoCusWright is a research authority in the travel industry focusing on market research.