This is probably the most difficult interview CapeInfo has tackled. On the one hand, we've been critical in the past of Cape Town Routes Unlimited (CTRU) ... for various reasons. On the other hand, we think CEO Noki Dube and her team are a really great bunch of people and we really do want to see them succeed.
Nils Heckscher, chairman: Fedhasa Cape
Joining something that belongs together is always difficult. There are personalities and their support bases, there is lobbying and jockeying for position. This creates animosities which turn into varying perceptions of the process and the people involved. The changes were made and new teams put together. These new appointments needed to find their feet, create new strategies and implement these in an environment which is highly critical of them.
Having said this, the honeymoon is truly over now and we as an industry and a destination need delivery from CTRU.
CTRU is the statutory tourism authority established by Western Cape Provincial Government and the City of Cape Town. It is not a "greenfields organisation", having brought together the Western Cape Tourism Board (WCTB), Convention Bureau and the Cape of Great Events. Many of the programmes, such as the use of Tiscover for E-business, were inherited from the Western Cape Tourism Board.
It is responsible on an agency basis for Cape Town Tourism (CTT) and portion of the City of Cape Town's funding is ring-fenced for CTT. CTT has its own management and directors, and it is important to note that it is also a different organisation to the former CTT. It now represents all six areas in the enlarged City of Cape Town and not just the single central area as before.
Promises of a far bigger budget, more resources, greater efficiencies and an altogether new era in tourism was the political hype that preceded CTRU. One can only measure CTRU's achievements against those of its predecessors.
And here lies the rub... were expectations too great for this new statutory organisation, hindered by Treasury controls, and where transformation of the industry is an overriding concern? In the past, the spokesperson for tourism in the Cape has always been the CEO of Captour/CTT and the three people in that job over the past 30 years – John Robért, Gordon Oliver and Sheryl Ozinsky – were strong, passionate Capetonians, always prepared to tilt at windmills.
Nils Heckscher:
There are a lot of activities that CTRU are engaged in. The profile in the local media has increased through the ad campaign. Their communication with other tourism associations is worth mentioning. At Fedhasa, we see Neil Markovitz, our past chairman, on the board of CTRU and similarly CTRU's Bekithemba Langalibalele has joined our board. This ensures that CTRU is in touch with industry.
I attended a CTRU meeting with the SAA Germany customer advisory board, to find ways to address seasonality. Many ideas were exchanged but unfortunately the problem cannot be resolved in one season or one year.
CTRU is working as closely with SA Tourism but I believe that CTRU should become a more independent of SA Tourism and should market Cape Town and the Western Cape as a destination in its own right on the international scene. This of course is a question of finances.
Noki Dube is likeable and businesslike, but in interviews as in presentations, don't expect "sound bites" that make for rivetting copy! There is a lot of jargon and "consultant-speak" before the facts emerge. She doesn't sweep you off your feet with her passion, but she does come across as a very determined manager. But those are very subjective observations... what has CTRU achieved since May 2004?
Dube focussses on four goals:
Establishing a winning destination Brand
Established the first Marketing Intelligence Unit for tourism in the Western Cape.
190 000 consumers were reached via various campaigns, internationally and locally.
Successfully re-launched an integrated provincial website (7 500 tourism products, 68 town websites, 6 regional websites). Regional tourism offices underwent training, and computers and software were donated to these offices. With TV, Radio, newspaper & cinema advertising, the number of website hits grew from 7 000 to 50 000 per month.
The Money Trail... Year ending March 2005 (just published)
INCOME
54 351 083
Provincial Government
20 032 000
City of Cape Town
21 750 000
ICT infrastructure
500 000
Project income
11 116 929
Interest & sundry
952 154
EXPENSES
53 384 398
Projects
41 653 738
Salaries
7 803 977
Communication
880 245
Travel & subsistence
579 045
Repairs & maintenance
368 413
Only 5 top items shown here
Project income/expenditure deserves further attention
Cape Flats Tourism Study in final stage of completion. This will highlight the area's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.
Cape to Namibia Route Development study initiated to understand what tourism experiences the N7 offers people driving to and from Namibia.
More than 130 SMMEs attended Cape Tourism Showcase, 30 SMME's attended Indaba 2005 and 10 SMMEs attended ITB 2005. CTRU assisted these organisations with marketing training to promote their product offerings.
CTRU supports and collaborates with the Tourism Entrepreneurship Programme on enterprise development initiatives like the Cape Tourism Showcase.
Participated in the Youth Tourism Indaba to encourage the youth to become tourism ambassadors for the region.
Collaborated with ACSA and DED&T on the Schools Tourism Project.
Gateway Tourism Centres gateways opened include those in Beaufort West, Van Rhynsdorp and in the Storms River area. CTRU provided funding and infrastructure.
Minimum requirement inspections at 230 tourism establishments, determining whether members of Local Tourism Associations comply with requirements for service levels as set out in their membership documents.
Access the Cape subsidises entrance to attractions for schools, senior citizens and youth in the Western Cape that would not usually travel because of perceived high prices and an attitude of 'tourism is only for foreigners'.
Maximising Marketing impact and resources
Hosted local and international travel agents and media to sell the region's attractions and experiences so that the destination can be promoted to prospective travellers.
Co-ordinated marketing activities at the Chelsea Flower Show, Cannes Film Festival and the Volvo Ocean Race.
Hosted event organisers of conferences and exhibitions to showcase the region's attractiveness as a business tourism market. The leisure offering was also promoted to encourage post conference tours and repeat visits.
Host quarterly business partners' forums to discuss issues affecting the tourism industry with stakeholders.
Host annual Airline Destination Workshops to devise strategies to address challenges of seasonality.
Leveraged private sector sponsorships and co-op marketing to reduce reliance on public sector funding. Joint marketing with Thompson Tours for the 2005 Hermanus Whale Festival helped it become largest ever.
Improving the Business : Leisure tourism ratio.
CTRU's Convention and Events Bureau played an active part in Meetings Africa - the premier Business Tourism exhibition in Africa - and exhibited at EIBTM trade show.
Promoted pre and post tours aggressively to conference organisers and conference delegates, thereby increasing spend per day whilst in Cape Town and the Western Cape.
Conducted the 2004 delegate tracking study to understand trends in the business tourism market related to the Western Cape.
Delegate boosting at international Business Tourism trade shows such as IMEX.
Hosted first ever BestCities Global Alliance forum and BestCities Alliance sales mission with 7 international clients & the potential of securing 4 other conferences
Secured IDF conference - 10 000 delegates to come to Cape Town.
Hosted one of the largest ever ICCA Congress in its 42-year history for which Cape Town received global accolades. Hosted International Association of Convention & Visitor Bureaux during the Congress, increasing the awareness of Cape Town and the Western Cape.
Secured Cape Town as final destination for the World Kite board Professional Tour. Helped the bid process and won the right to host the UCI B Cycling word championships for Cape Town in 2007.
Supported three major regional events (Knysna Oyster Festival, Berg River Canoe marathon and 1st National Golf Festival which were in the shoulder season.
New CTRU Research Projects Peak season visitor tracking survey: field data collection is currently underway. Analysis will commence as soon as all data has been received. Reports are expected in February. Regular visitor tracking studies: will be conducted on a regular basis in collaboration with LTBs. Results will be released on a quarterly basis. Pricing study: will monitor pricing trends, including lodging, restaurant meals, transport and entertainment. Barometer research: The Western Cape tourism barometer will measure key tourism indicators such as arrivals, spend, length of stay and others, and will be distributed on a quarterly basis. CTRU Tourism reference panel: for the industry to speak with a coordinated voice on tourism issues, offering expert opinion on tourism performance. It will comprise individuals from different sectors of the industry.
There is no doubt that Dube and her team have been extremely busy since they moved in. Much is made of amalgamating the various organisations, but the fact is... the entire management team is new and there are very few "old faces" to be seen. Many of the activities have been going on for years which CTRU has taken over from predecessor organisations. There are new initiatives and what they will deliver remains to be seen. The high claims for the Intelligence Unit need to be demonstrated – remember that WCTB had a partnership with Horwath Consulting and Wesgro that published Tourism Trends for several years.
The new website (and the use of Tiscover) was inherited from the WCTB, but the new design and navigational tools were produced by CTRU. The traffic growth Dube quotes as an achievement is worse than disappointing! Before crowing about traffic growth, CTRU should relate their figures to industry equivalents! (The base traffic inherited from WCTB is an indictment of that former organisation.)
CTRU has invested heavily in training regional offices and product owners in the use of the website system, which is going to be a cornerstone of CTRU's marketing efforts.
Developing New Collateral
An example could include devising packages for the Cape Town International Jazz Festival to include flights, accommodation and a visit to the Winelands in addition to attending the Festival.
Geographic/thematic routes
CTRU is hosting a workshop in February 2006 where the Geographical Routes covering the Province will be identified. The routes will cover areas such as: Whale Route – Overberg region from Gordons Bay round Betty’s Bay, Hermanus, Gansbaai, Bredasdorp, Cape Agulhas to Swellendam. Garden Route – N2 stretching from Cape Town through Mossel bay and Knysna. Cape Namibia Route including the West Coast Route – opening up the West Coast area and connecting with the Northern Cape and Southern Namibia. Cape Point Route – Looking at the Cape Peninsula from Cape Town to Cape Point Route 62 – through the Winelands to Montagu, Ladismith , Oudtshoorn, Uniondale and into the Langkloof. N1 – Cape Town into the Great Karoo, Beaufort West etc.
Linear routes will open up the regions and connect with adjacent routes. The expansion of existing routes and the promotion of new routes provide broader tourism experiences for a visitor, and maximise benefits for local communities. This strategy will promote product inclusivity.
Golf & Wine Tourism
The golf tourism strategy has already been launched and the marketing collateral is being developed.
A similar initiative covers wine tourism with an initial draft of a wine tourism strategy for the province published and released initially for internal comment. From a wine routes perspective there are already 14 successful wine routes that have been established.
Cultural & Heritage Routes
The promotion of the culture and heritage route will provide further opportunities to expose smaller communities to tourism alongside the marketing and promotion of the more ‘prominent’ icons of Cape Town and the Western Cape.
Dube makes the claim that "11 booking centres were established in a record period of 3 months". This misses the point that every computer that logs on to their website is a booking office. Most local tourist bureaux operated as local booking offices before the CTRU era. We find some of the fuzzy thinking in CTRU reports very frustrating!
Dube defends CTRU's reliance of SA Tourism which has come under increasing criticism, as a marketing partner, from the hospitality industry. "We work effectively with SAT to complement our marketing effort in the following ways:
SAT facilitate our entry into new markets.
Guest Relations programme liaison between CTRU and SAT: The two organisations coordinate visits by overseas travel agents, film crews, international media and VIP's.
Their strategic research support unit provides us with invaluable research on SA's Global competitiveness; International source markets – market segmentation reports; National and domestic tourist arrivals; and Provincial tourism reports.
We are particularly looking forward to SA Tourism embarking on a new system of measuring the economic impact of tourism. This will mean taking satellite industries into account which will include retail spend, restaurant spend etc. This will make our job even easier in demonstrating the effect tourism has on our economy and will be particularly effective in our events calendar."
Dube lists the following as the activities for the road ahead:
Increase use of the Internet to market the destination worldwide and extend eMarketing activity.
Working with RTOs/LTAs to train product owners to market their products through the internet.
Establishing and overseeing more Gateway info centres.
Move from sole-funded marketing campaigns to joint venture and co-operative activity.
Development of new collateral to meet new themes and markets, with the development of new geographic and thematic routes.
Events will focus on destination conversion campaigns.
Generate new business leads and convention wins
Develop a Tourism Barometer for the Western Cape
Use domestic trade shows as a platform to grow exclusivity.
CTRU's achievements raise questions and they will be watched very closely in the coming year. Should a city and province that relies so heavily on tourism expect any big bang? Probably not. CTRU will chip away at issues and opportunities. Nuts and bolts will be addressed. There is little doubt that a lot of groundwork has been done. Now... is CTRU going to demonstrate that it is a world class marketing organisation?
The focus is on the regions, for good reason, but 80% of the Province's population and probably even more of its business activity is in the City of Cape Town. We do need to ask whether Cape Town's ratepayers, given their municipality's R22 million contribution to CTRU's annual budget in 2004/5, are getting enough bang for their buck. Cape Town Tourism received R8.4 million of that sum.
CTRU's 2004/5 annual report is titled "Unlimited excellence"... we don't think they are quite there yet.
CapeInfo's notes
At the end of the day, one relates to personal experiences. CapeInfo was one of the first to congratulate Noki Dube on her appointment. We tried to meet her, starting in August 2004, but achieving that took a year! Our very critical views on CTRU's launch were covered in our October 2004 newsletter. We met with CTRU in September 2005 to discuss possible areas of collaboration. Nothing has come of this.
From our experience, communication is CTRU's greatest weakness – not acceptable for a marketing organisation! There have been occasions when emails to CTRU drew no response, and we had to turn to their PR consultants, Isithombe, where we have always enjoyed excellent service.
