Mthatha tourism delegation to use NMBT visitor centre model

A HIGH-LEVEL delegation of members of the King Sabata Dalindyebo municipality in Mthatha recently visited Nelson Mandela Bay to see how the city’s tourism body developed and operates their Visitor Information Centres (VICs) around the city.

“We were informed by National Department of Tourism, Mr J. Kuhlane, that Nelson Mandela Bay Tourism has one of the best visitor information centres in the province and that it is a great model on which to build our centres,” said Mziwonke Mazwi, from Manyano Consulting and Management, project Implementer of the King Sabata Dalindyebo municipality VIC initiative (Umthatha Airport VIC).

“We are here to learn about what VICs look like, how they operate and what a full functional VIC is all about.”

As a starting point, the delegation of six members first attended a presentation by Nelson Mandela Bay Tourism where the following topics were presented and discussed:

• overview of NMBT’s Marketing Strategy (including electronic marketing)
• overview of the Call Centre, Accommodation bookings, Online Reservations System and Nelson Mandela Bay Pass
• overview of NMBT’s interactive website, touch screen and plasma screen technology and the importance of gather statistics for research purposes at the VIC’s before they were taken to visit the Donkin Reserve, The Boardwalk and Port Elizabeth Airport VICs.

At the moment the King Sabata Dalindyebo municipality is in the planning phase for a VIC near the Ultra City on the N2 through Mthatha. The municipality aims to capitalize on the high number of tourist foot traffic through the region through a “one-stop shop” of tourism information on the Transkei and Mthatha.

They anticipate the project to be up and running by 2013 after phases of construction, commissioning and launching. They also plan to launch a virtual VIC online for potential tourists to the region.

NMBT marketing manager, Titus Chuene, said collaboration and engagement with other tourism bodies was critical, particularly in the Eastern Cape, as a means to building sustainable tourism links throughout the province.

“There is always the feeling that we are learning from them and they are learning from us. We are lucky to be in the position to show King Sabata Dalindyebo municipality’s delegates how we have fashioned and run our VICs, especially after getting so much positive feedback from the World Cup visitors. This has put us in a unique position to share the lessons of the World Cup and world opinion with other regional tourism interest,” said Chuene.

Chuene added that once the King Sabata Dalindyebo municipality had its VIC running, NMBT would cross-market with them so that tourists there might come to Nelson Mandela Bay and vice versa.

Author: Amy Shelver