NMBT CEO brings hot travel trends to Bay after World Travel Market
16 November 2010
Skefile spent a week in the British capital which hosts what is considered the premier global event for the travel industry.
“I went to the World Travel Market with a view to leveraging the interest shown in South Africa and Nelson Mandela Bay during the World Cup,” said Skefile, who shared a stand with the newly formed Eastern Cape Parks and Tourism Agency (amalgamated Eastern Cape Tourism Board and Eastern Cape Parks).
“Existing statistics from NMBT’s Information Offices reveal that the UK and Germany are Nelson Mandela Bay’s top international markets. Also the fact that both England and Germany played in our city, gave us ground to be present at these European trade shows,” said Skefile.
While Skefile attended WTM, marketing manager Titus Cheune attended the Journeys 2010 in Germany.
The objective of attending these events, aside from promoting the city post-World Cup, was to meet with trade that is interested in doing business in Nelson Mandela Bay and to establish relationships that would result in more visitors coming to the area. Both Skefile and Cheune took along 20 different suggested itineraries on trips within Nelson Mandela Bay for potential tour operators and tourists.
“I was quite surprised to learn that ‘space tourism’, or star-gazing, is a new avenue of tourism interest for South Africa, where visitors want to come to South Africa to survey our celestial offerings. Ideal for this is the Karoo, which is right on our doorstep, so we need to view this as an opportunity.”
Other than “space tourism”, the trends according to market requests are nature, wildlife and adventure sport tourism.
“There was also a lot of interest from tour operators to use South Africa as a wedding and honeymoon destination. I am going to pass on those specific requests to product like The Plantation, voted the 2009 and 2010 Bride’s Choice wedding reception centre nationally,” said Skefile.
“Another tour operator I met with, who normally sells Durban, was keen to investigate travelling through Wild Coast to NMB.
“Travellers interested in coming to SA are from the middle-upper income bracket, not the budget traveller. There was also interest from different media, and specifically from the Editor at Large of The Telegraph’s Ultratravel, who studied journalism at Rhodes University in Grahamstown.”
Skefile said the trip also enabled NMBT to meet with South Africa Tourism officials who were stationed abroad. “One has got to keep in contact with these organisations in SA and abroad all the time otherwise what you have to offer could be easily over-looked.”
Skefile identified Meetings, Incentives, Conventions and Exhibitions (MICE) for the domestic market NMB. She was able to meet with South African Tourism’s country manager in the UK who also focused on this market.
“I am busy consolidating all the opportunities I identified and working them into a plan of action so the region can benefit from them. There was even one tour operator who knew nothing about our region and would be keen to come here to familiarise himself with the area and consider bringing tourists from the UK and Canada. I will certainly follow up on this and consider the return on investment if NMBT invested in such a visit. At the end of the day it would have to equate to visitors, so such a trip would need to be well planned and well researched.”
Skefile said another highlight of her trip was being exposed to so much research. “South African Tourism has spent millions on research and I was reminded by them while at WTM that it is there for tourism organisations like NMBT to use. Research and statistics is key to moving forward when we market NMB not only internationally but nationally as well. We already know from our own research that UK, German and Dutch are consumers most interested in visiting NMB. Through having had a successful 2010 FIFA World Cup, in which all three played at the NMB Stadium, we need to ensure that we tap into those markets with all the capacity and resources we have available, requesting assistance from SAT and ECPTA to assist,” said Skefile.
“Another interesting trend was that most travel bookings today are done via website and smart phones, which clearly indicates that is where we need to focus our attention when marketing.”
The World Travel Market is an annual business-to-business event presenting a diverse range of destinations and industry sectors to United Kingdom and international travel professionals over a four-day period from November 8-11.
According the World Travel Market organisers the event offers participants the opportunity to efficiently, effectively and productively gain immediate competitive advantage for their business and stay abreast with the latest developments in the travel industry.
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