Bulgarian media crew latest to visit the Bay

THE Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) brought about a spike in foreign media visiting Nelson Mandela Bay so far this year.

In addition to 37 Afcon journalists who were hosted on city and township tours, a China Central Television crew visited NMB and visited the Red Location Museum, Hobie Beach and the Boardwalk for a travel-related insert which was broadcasted internationally during the Afcon tournament.

“The city also saw a number of sport journalists visit the city to cover Super Rugby. And at the beginning of March NMBT hosted a crew of journalists from Bulgaria’s top travel publications, Vagabond, and its airport magazine Highflight,” said NMBT marketing manager Titus Chuene.

The circulation of Vagabond is about 8000 copies and targeted at the diplomatic community in Bulgaria as well as more than 60 000 English-speaking expats living in the country.

Highflight reaches a potential readership of four million per year.

Among other media to feature the Bay were:

• SABC 2‘s Afrikaans magazine programme Pasella visited the Bay in November and December and inserts filmed during those visits were aired on 23 January (Colchester) and 13 February (Sacramento Trail), with another one on Cape Recife and SAMREC still to come.
• Freelance journalist Jim Freeman, who writes for many travel-related media and visited the city in February, has already featured in The Star newspaper. The Boardwalk Hotel sponsored Freeman’s accommodation.
• 10 Ghanaian media were taken on a day tour to Addo Elephant National Park
• Eye-on-Art on Bay TV broadcasted the inserts on Route 67 and the Art Walk which was filmed during NMBT’s Summer Season activities.
• During November NMBT hosted a SA Tourism delegation. One journalists was a blogger and four of his articles (Port Elizabeth as a destination, Red Location Backpackers, Donkin Reserve and PE accommodation) have already been published this year.
• CBSN published an insert on the Nelson Mandela Bay and the Garden Route on their website which was aired after they visited the area as part of the hosted IRB 7’s media delegation.
• American blogger Gaelyn Olmstad of Geogypsy visited the city for two days and was taken on a City Tour, Township Tour and along the Sunshine Saunter.