Explaining the online success of Cape Town Tourism
During the 2010 FIFA World Cup™, Cape Town Tourism converted football fans into fans of Cape Town. Photo by Roy Barford
Cape Town Tourism CEO Mariëtte du Toit-Helmbold today explained the success of the organisation’s e-marketing strategy during 2010, particularly the I ♥ Cape Town Facebook fan page, at the E-Tourism Africa Summit held at the Cape Town International Convention Centre.
In her lecture, entitled “I Love Cape Town: A Virtual Fan Park”, Du Toit-Helmbold explained that, “People are demanding information and experiences at the touch of a button.”
It was therefore necessary to set up various online channels to provide information about Cape Town, ahead of the 2010 FIFA World Cup™, held in June and July of this year. Du Toit-Helmbold explained that Cape Town Tourism invested a large amount of resources into developing an effective website, as well as social networking platforms such as Facebook, Flickr and Twitter.
The Facebook fan page now has more than 147 000 fans, making it the third most popular Facebook fan page in South Africa. Du Toit-Helmbold said the fan page is aimed at proud citizens, homesick expats, previous visitors and first-time visitors who want to get advice about Cape Town from those who live there or who have visited before.
Other speakers at the conference included Damian Cook (CEO of E-Tourism Frontiers), Helena Egan (head of destination marketing at TripAdvisor), Tara Turkington (CEO of Flow Communications) as well as many other online marketing experts.
Jesse Desjardins, a Canadian digital strategist widely regarded as “the world’s most connected traveller”, gave a special presentation about his 72 Hours in Cape Town project.
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