Vital to look at new markets
27 July 2012
Over the years, NMBT has been criticised on the one side, of not doing enough to pursue foreign markets, and on the other side of doing too much. In some quarters, pursuing emerging markets, like China, has also been questioned.
It’s is a bit like driving a car; keeping your eyes on what’s ahead, but not losing sight of what is in the rear-view and side mirrors. Conditions may require flexibility in changing route while continuing toward one’s destination.
So in tourism-speak; while NMBT remains focused on the domestic and traditional foreign markets - like UK and Germany - it still needs to keep an eye on emerging markets.
Another analogy. If sales representatives remained in office and did not call on clients and potential clients, the business would remain stagnant or worse still – fail.
According to tourism industry norms, applied to destination marketing, trade marketing, is an integral part of the marketing mix. Trade marketing includes attending trade shows - a platform where tourism businesses and destination marketing agencies interact and do business.
NMBT’s approach to destination marketing internationally is not only in keeping with the accepted marketing mix, it was also justified in South African Tourism Services Association’s (SATSA) most recent market intelligence report.
The report, which provides a summary of the Tourism Business Index, conducted by accounting firm Grant Thornton, quoted CEO of Tourism Business Council of SA (TBCSA) Mmatsatsi Marobe: “Tourism has been recognised as a major driver of the SA economy...but to reignite the tourism engine we need to be more competitive in our approach.
“We need to keep pioneering in the emerging markets, whilst protecting our traditional markets. We need the industry and government to work even more closely together in terms of both destination marketing and on the supply side where the cumulative effect of producer-driven inflation and non-aligned policy is combining to reduce our global competitiveness.”
If NMBT does not “pioneer in the emerging markets” now, then when the rest of the world starts reaping the benefits, NMBT, the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality and its council will be accused of doing too little, too late.
The turnaround time to fully realise the return of investment on an international destination marketing trip is three years.
Considering NMBT’s recent trip to China, the high profile media coverage already received has justified the R100 000 it cost NMBT to go. The trip was arranged by South African Tourism (SAT) as a workshop and was subsidised.
To date and conservatively speaking, the advertising value estimate of media coverage on Nelson Mandela Bay received to date amounts to R507 000 with an additional R1.53m in the offing.
On the trip, NMBT launched its Mandarin website http://www.nmbtcn.com and signed a letter of intent with the General Secretary of Asia Art Expo (also known as Asia Arts Top Show).
CCTV, China’s largest television station, along with the state-owned internet news website, Xin Hua, and other media, covered the launch of NMB Mandarin website extensively.
The launch is still to be featured on Global Travel Channel Hong Kong and China Travel Online. Moonlight Travel magazine will feature NMBT and not charge. Additionally, NMB has already featured in an elite Chinese lifestyle magazine, called Clan, which boasts two million readers.
NMBT marketing representative for the Chinese market and coordinator of the event, Andi An, said the launch of the website was hugely successful. More than two years of research and preparations have preceded the launch of this project.
Additionally, a group of 16 foreign independent travelers will tour South Africa as a result of NMBT going to China. A local tour operator will host the group throughout the trip that includes three days in the Bay. Then, CITS Shanghai will have developed a Nelson Mandela Bay city package for the regular tourist by the end of this month. These are a few of the outcomes of the Chinese trips. It’s impossible to mention everything.
It is also important to note that NMBT’s interventions into the emerging market are aligned to not only the city’s tourism marketing strategy, but also that of South Africa.
The trip to China was in line with national government’s BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, China) strategy. It was also in line with Tourism Minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk’s comment at the South African Tourism Indaba held in Durban earlier this year. He said research dictated South Africa pitching to the Chinese market.
Since my appointment as CEO two years ago, NMBT as embarked on six destination marketing trips abroad. In total, this cost NMBT about R300 000. Budget is obviously tight and there are so many trade show opportunities, so NMBT has to be selective when deciding which shows it attends. NMBT seeks opportunties where the trip is subsidised by provincial and/or national stakeholders.
To fully assess the return on investment, for which a three-year turnaround is required - critical facts and figures must be obtained from the tourism industry. This has often been compared to pulling teeth. Let’s hope extraction of information becomes easier.
After a trip to South America, an Argentinian journalist came to South African and lived here for about three months, filing tourism features to foreign media about Nelson Mandela Bay and the surrounding areas.
All-in-all, and as Marobe says, government and the industry need to work closer together to pioneer the emerging markets. That would certainly result in a win-win for all involved and would enable NMBT to keep its eyes on the road ahead while pioneering emerging markets. However, this would not be possible with attending trade-shows nationally and internationally.
Unfortunately, there will always been doomsayers. But having thoroughly assessed differing opinion for and against, attending trade shows, NMBT is confident that when marketing the Bay as a destination to the foreign market by using the industry accepted destination marketing mix, it hasn’t made a wrong turn yet.
Please wait!
