Cape Town Tourism is preparing to launch a new strategy to attract more foreign tourists and create new jobs after about 200 tourism-related businesses closed in the past two years.
Mariette du Toit-Helmbold, the chief executive, said the emphasis on overseas marketing, based on South Africa’s scenery and wildlife, must be changed because research showed that 80 percent of international tourists were now in search of urban tourism.
This did not apply to Cape Town alone. Foreign tourists did not confine themselves to city boundaries but would also visit the surrounding areas.
Cape Town was working with Johannesburg, Durban and South African Tourism on a joint marketing campaign to showcase the country and to appeal to changing tastes.
Discussing suggestions that accommodation was overpriced, she said it was “clear that the current depressed nature of arrivals has more to do with externalities and the consumer climate than with accommodation pricing. While we do speak of Cape Town having a high-end brand, much of the recent blame for lower demand has been levelled at five-star prices… Cape Town boasts some of the world’s best small hotels, bed and breakfasts and guest houses, competitively priced and offering excellent value for money.
“Post-World Cup figures showed that 92 percent of foreign visitors said they would recommend South Africa to others and 96 percent said they would return. This does not suggest a fundamentally flawed product or a pricing problem.”
It was a handicap for South Africa that it was a long-haul destination, but as numbers of visitors and airlines rose, prices would come down. “If we can address the demand problem flight costs should become more competitive.”
Calvyn Gilfellan, the chief executive of Cape Town Routes Unlimited, the tourism authority for the Western Cape, said there would always be people who wanted to travel, and they must be encouraged to stay longer and spend more.