Keith Lyle receiving his prize from Lianne Burton of Cape Town Tourism

Keith Lyle, the winner of the Cape Town. Live it. Love it. Winter Flickr Competition, received his prize – an iPod Nano – from Cape Town Tourism earlier this week.

The Cape Town. Live it. Love it. Winter Flickr Competition, which ran from May to August, required people to submit photos taken in winter in the greater Cape Town area.

Our guest judges, Paul Bruins, Greg Beadle and Joy-Anne Goodenough, selected the finalists and then we asked the public to vote for their favourite winter photo on www.capetown.travel/winter/vote.

Keith’s amazing photograph of a wave hitting the Kalk Bay lighthouse beat the stiff competition and won him an iPod Nano.

Edward Babb receiving his prize from Lianne Burton of Cape Town Tourism

The winner of the “Why Cape Town is cool in winter” Twitter and Facebook competition, Edward Babb, received his prize – an Acer notebook – at the Cape Town Tourism offices in the city centre last Wednesday.

Edward impressed the judges with his poetic entry despite the 140 character limit:

“Mist plays on mntn peaks, cool sea spray flecks my cheeks, billowed clouds & azure light, Cape Town in winter, whattasight.”

Edward said, “Hoorah! Poetry pays! I’ve realised now that I’ve won a notebook I’m obliged to write more…”

A misty winter’s morning, photo courtesy mallix

Congratulations to Edward Babb, the winner of our “Why Cape Town is cool in winter” competition.

We asked you to tell us why Cape Town is cool in winter in 140 characters or less over Twitter, Facebook or e-mail. Entries poured in and were judged on originality.

Edward’s winning entry was impressively poetic, given the 140-character limit: “Mist plays on mntn peaks, cool sea spray flecks my cheeks, billowed clouds & azure light, Cape Town in winter, whattasight.” 

He wins an Acer notebook worth R2 500 for his creative entry.

“Hoorah! Poetry pays!” says Edward. “I’ve realised now that I’ve won a notebook I’m obliged to write more…”

The following entries also caught the judges’ attention:

takkie13: “CT is cool in winter deepening the natural colours of nature reminding us to take note of the spectacular picture it paints.”

Wendy: “CT is the only city with a human-magnet built into its pavements that gets activated whenever the sun makes an unexpected appearance.”

Fred_Roed: “In winter, Cape Town is not only cool; it’s sporty, stormy, friendly, fiery, fun, windy, wet… and best of all, cosy!”

Winner Keith Lyle aka Stanleyace

Cape Town Tourism has identified the importance of using local citizens and customers as the marketers of Cape Town. As part of their Winter 2009 Marketing Campaign, Cape Town Tourism called on the creativity of Capetonians with their “Warm up to Winter” Flickr competition. The result: 676 photographs submitted by Capetonians (and those further afield who had visited and photographed the Mother City), who clearly drew plenty of inspiration from the city’s wonderful winter experiences and dramatic landscape.

2nd place: Jo-Ann Stokes

The competition ran for three months. At the end of August, guest judges Paul Bruins, Greg Beadle and Joy-Anne Goodenough (who are all active Flickr photographers themselves), selected 10 finalists. The public was then invited, via e-mailers, Cape Town’s visitor website and various portals such as Twitter and Facebook, to vote for their favourite photograph. More than 500 votes were ultimately counted. In the end, the winner was Keith Lyle, with a photograph of stormy waves crashing against the lighthouse in Kalk Bay. 

“We wanted our social media community to be involved in selecting the winners because they are a truly loyal group of Cape Town supporters,” says Mariëtte du Toit-Helmbold, CEO of Cape Town Tourism. “Cape Town has nearly 45 000 Facebook fans from all over the world.” Du Toit-Helmbold went on to comment on the high quality of the entries: “All the photographs were exquisite. They reminded us that Cape Town’s rare beauty goes so much further than the summer holiday picture postcard. Winter is dramatic, moody and evocative. It is when nature is really on show. It’s also a time to indulge in Cape Town’s wellness and gourmet offerings.” 

3rd place: Hendrik Groenewald aka hgroenewald

Cape Town Tourism created the mini-sitehttp://www.capetown.travel/winter”> http://www.capetown.travel/winter specifically as part of their commitment to build a strong winter brand for Cape Town and promote Cape Town as a year-round destination. The mini-site hosted a myriad of special winter promotions and packages and was the platform for entry into and display of entries for the Flickr winter competition.

To celebrate World Tourism Month, Cape Town Tourism has launched another public Flickr competition, this time aspirant photographers are asked to interpret the phrase, “This is the Cape Town I Want the World to See”. There is a R15 000 cash prize for the best photograph. For more information and to submit entries, visit www.capetown.travel/worldtourismmonth

Congratulations to Keith Lyle, the winner of our Cape Town. Live it. Love it. Winter Flickr Competition!

The Cape Town. Live it. Love it. Winter Flickr Competition, which ran from May to August, required people to submit photos taken in winter in the greater Cape Town area.

Our guest judges, Paul Bruins, Greg Beadle and Joy-Anne Goodenough, selected the finalists and then we asked the public to vote for their favourite winter photo on www.capetown.travel/winter/vote.

Keith receives an iPod Nano for his amazing photograph of a wave hitting the Kalk Bay lighthouse.

Time is running out – you have less than a week left to vote for your favourite winter image. Keith Lyle aka Stanleyace is in the lead with 112 votes out of a total of 493. The competition has generated a lot of excitement and it’s still anyone’s race. The competition closes on September 15, 2009, after which the winner will be announced. To make your contribution and cast your vote, click here now!

Top five finalists

Keith Lyle aka Stanleyace

Hendrik Groenewald aka hgroenewald

Jo-Ann Stokes

Sebastian Selzer aka mountainSeb

Dan.rich77

Photo courtesy Jenny Buzzolini

Cape Town’s hospitality industry may have mixed reviews about winter 2009, but Cape Town Tourism has enjoyed positive results from the campaign it conducted on behalf of its members.  In a joint marketing partnership with Cape Town Tourism, Thompsons Travel reported a year-on-year increase in travel bookings to Cape Town of 37% for the period from May to June and 59% for the month of July. 

Cape Town Tourism launched its Warm Up to the Mother City This Winter campaign in June 2009. The campaign used three marketing tools: a mini-site, http://www.capetown.travel/winter, which showed winter specials on a 50% off or value-added basis; a partnership with Thompsons Travel; and an awareness campaign which ran through the media. 

The campaign addressed the perception that Cape Town was synonymous with blue skies and beach holidays.  Instead, Warm Up to the Mother City explored the emotive language of winter through food, wine, outdoor pursuits, extreme sport and a cultural focus which encouraged Capetonians and other South Africans to get out from under their duvets.

Mariëtte du-Toit Helmbold, Cape Town Tourism CEO, explains: “We wanted to stimulate the tourism market and turn the tide on quiet winters, but we also wanted to activate citizen pride so that Capetonians would start to look forward to hosting the world in the winter of 2010.”

While some Cape Town Tourism members from Gordon’s Bay, Newlands, the CBD, Noordhoek and the northern suburbs noticed more inquiries because of traffic driven through the http://www.capetown.travel/winter website, the establishments that reported excellent returns boosted their winter sales by actively marketing themselves over and above the Warm Up to the Mother City This Winter campaign. 

Photo courtesy VSGR

Says Du Toit-Helmbold: “Cape Town Tourism provides various marketing channels for the industry to communicate to the public.  While we are responsible for promoting a blanket awareness of Cape Town’s winter, in which all our members are welcome to participate, we always recommend that establishments roll out their own marketing campaigns too. Because each business has a different success model, pro-active self-promotion coupled with incentives like the Warm Up to the Mother City Winter Campaign is what stimulates sales.”

The joint marketing partnership with Thompsons Travel specifically targeted the Johannesburg market. Michelle Jolley, product campaigner for Thompsons, comments; “We are so pleased with the results. The campaign has provided us with the additional push that was needed to entice travellers to Cape Town during winter.”

Travel trends are increasingly web-driven and visitors from no fewer than 80 countries worldwide visited the www.capetown.travel/winter mini-site during the campaign, which was driven by the 795 winter pages indexed by Google.  In total, the Winter Campaign page received 28 992 page views, which is promising for a debut campaign. 

Other contributing factors to Cape Town’s winter survival were sporting events like the Confederations Cup, the Lions Tour and the last-minute decision to host the IPL tournament in South Africa. In addition, it is thought that South Africans who traditionally fly north for their winter holidays localised their holidays due to budget constraints.

Our winter Flickr competition has come to an end – and now we need your help in choosing the winner.

The Cape Town. Live it. Love it. Winter Flickr Competition, which ran from May to August, required people to submit photos taken in winter in the Greater Cape Town area.

Our guest judges, Paul Bruins, Greg Beadle, and Joy-Anne Goodenough, have selected the following finalists:

• John Maarschalk aka Just John
• Hirohiko Okada aka 1/8 sec (two photos)
• Keith Lyle aka Stanleyace
• Craig aka panic-embryo
• Sebastian Selzer aka mountainSeb (three photos)
• Sivan Miller
• dan.rich77
• Jo-Ann Stokes
• Hendrik Groenewald

Visit the winter competition page and choose your favourite photo.

Please note that only one vote is allowed per computer.

The winning photographer will receive an iPod Nano – so make your vote count!

Here are a few of the latest entries for our Cape Town. Live it. Love it. Winter Competition.

Enter your own photographs of Cape Town in winter and stand a chance to win an iPod Nano! All you have to do is join our Cape Town. Live it. Love it. Winter Competition group and add your photo to the group pool.

The competition closes at the end of August, so get you’ve only got one week left to get your entries in!

For more details of the competition rules, click here.

“Field day” by anni.b.

“Camps Bay” by Sebastian Selzer aka mountainSeb.

“Winter” by VSGR.

“Bantry storm” by John Maarschalk aka - Just John -.

“Yellow flowers” by Peter Grobbelaar.

One of the many beautiful entries to our Cape Town. Live it. Love it. Winter Competition. Photo by Trevor Metrowich

As we enter the final week of August, Capetonians are sure to be celebrating the fact that winter is drawing to a close. However, this also means that there is only one week left to enter our two winter competitions.

Enter our winter Flickr competition and stand a chance to win an iPod Nano. The rules of the Cape Town. Live it. Love it. Winter Competition are as follows:

1. The photograph must be taken in the greater Cape Town area.
2. The photograph must relate to the winter theme.
3. You may submit more than one entry, but please do not submit similar versions of the same picture.
4. The competition will run until the end of August.
5. Cape Town Tourism will pull a feed from the group’s pool to the Winter Campaign mini-site: www.capetown.travel/winter.
6. Any photograph submitted to the group may be used on www.capetown.travel/winter, but always with an attribution to the photographer and a link to his or her Flickr photostream.

To enter, submit your photograph(s) to the Cape Town. Live it. Love it. Winter Competition group and tag them as “winter”.

If you’re more of a words person than a photographer, tell us why Cape Town is cool in winter – in no more than 140 characters – and stand a chance to win an Acer notebook worth R2 500!

You can enter this fabulous competition on Twitter (by twittering @capetowntourism followed by your message), Facebook (by writing on our wall), or by emailing us at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).

The rules of the competition are as follows:

1. Your entry must be 140 characters or less.
2. Entries are open to South Africans and internationals.
3. Entries will be judged on originality.
4. The competition will run until the end of August.

So get your creative juices flowing and enter now – time is running out.