City of Cape Town concludes deal with Cape Town Tourism

"Until recently, we were unable to get a snapshot of where our visitors are coming from, who they are, and why they are choosing Cape Town as a preferred destination. Thanks to monthly and seasonal research being conducted by Cape Town Tourism, our tourism market intelligence is being enhanced," said the City's Mayoral Committee Member for Tourism, Events and Marketing, Councillor Garreth Bloor.

The three year agreement will enable the organisation to continue with their function as Cape Town's dedicated tourism agency until 2017, responsible for visitor services and tourism marketing.

Cape Town Tourism CEO, Enver Duminy said, "Our new agreement allows us to plan with confidence and in partnership with the City of Cape Town and other key tourism role players. Our vision is to be recognised globally as an innovative customer centric tourism marketing association which excels at seamlessly connecting all aspects of the tourism industry in Cape Town by 2017."

Key priorities for the next three years include assessing and addressing Cape Town's seasonality issues, boosting its own organisational sustainability with increased private sector funding and broadening its marketing lens to focus on developing new markets throughout the world.

The fact that regional markets made it onto the list of top growth markets into Cape Town and the Western Cape for 2012, albeit from a low base number, led the City to rethink its tourism strategy for Africa. There is huge, untapped tourism potential on the continent and the City has therefore included a renewed focus on African markets in the agreement between Cape Town Tourism (CTT) and the City.

"The tourism agency is also well placed to deliver on the objectives of the City's Tourism Development Framework for the next three years, to tap into the business tourism sub-sector and its high value adding activities, grow the strong existing international tourism markets, while tapping into growth markets, and to grow air arrivals from the African continent and domestic tourism," added Bloor.