NMBT first quarter report out

NELSON Mandela Bay Tourism (NMBT) has recently released its quarterly tourism research reports starting with the report for the first quarter of 2011.

The release comes on the back positive tourism industry reports yesterday that the South African tourism industry is booming with a growth of 15,1% compared with 6,7% globally. This was as a directly result of the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa.

The reports are based on tourism data obtained from various sources including in-house data generated at NMBT, South Africa Tourism and Statistics South Africa and would analyse the impact of visiting local and international tourists.

“Research is an important aspect of our tourism in Nelson Mandela Bay. It helps us to understand the impact of tourists on our city and how we can create greater benefit for our people and local companies,” said NMBT chief executive Mandlakazi Skefile.

The research carried out by tourism consultant Peter Myles in conjunction with NMBT will gauge the trends of tourism in Nelson Mandela Bay and make projections for future growth. The projected trends will serve to inform tourism businesses of better ways to position their establishments to boost the tourism sector in the city.

"In the 25 years that I have been monitoring tourism trends, the greatest contributing factor to product failure is a lack of quantitative and qualitative market research,” said Peter Myles, adding that many product owners market their products to a wide range of market segments instead of focusing on a specific target market.

“It's all about product market fit, which means matching existing products with primary tourism markets and developing new products for secondary and pioneering markets. This requires identifying foreign and domestic tourism growth trends based on scientific research studies,” said Myles.

He explains that the recent global recession has changed the focus of tourism marketing from focus on the destination to consumer driven demand, which includes shopping around for the best deals and most appealing package tours.

A preliminary tourism report, detailing accommodation occupancy and tips and advice for tourism service providers, is available on the NMBT website. The research advice is based on data collected between January and March 2011. The online data-update system on the website is easy to use and will help to monitor tourism activity.

“We would like to encourage our membership base to compile occupancy data and submit their stats to us online so we can build an even more comprehensive assessment of the tourism industry in Nelson Mandela Bay,” said Skefile.

The research also aims to help policy and decision makers in the tourism sector to create more opportunities for tourism to grow in the city through increased visits by tourists.

For more information and to download a copy of the report visit:
http://www.nmbt.co.za/downloads.html
http://www.nmbt.co.za/uploads/1/files/doc_january_to_march_2011_prelim_research_report.pdf