Marketing the province
THE premier the other day lamented the poor state of the Eastern Cape tourism industry, struggling behind the Western Cape and KwaZulu-Natal as he put it (“Masualle stresses economic growth for EC”, DD March 2).
He is right to be concerned. Like agriculture, tourism ought to be one of our main growth industries. With a booming agriculture we can be a green belt that sells vegetables to neighbouring countries and the European Union, as well as the rest of the country. We can increase tax revenues for the Treasury through new agri-industries and by reducing the welfare grant as thousands move into jobs and self-sustaining small businesses.
But I am beginning to wonder if the troubles in our tourism industry have to do with how we market ourselves. No one reason may be the sole cause, but it occurred to me from my own experience that the Eastern Cape is just not visible on the travel destination map. To test my suspicion, I Googled “South African destinations” and reviewed the first 10 travel agencies that popped up. I was looking to see how many would be Eastern Cape destinations. Names like Port Elizabeth, Addo, Amathole, Hogsback, Port Alfred, Wild Coast, and St Johns. Anything.
Well only Addo National Park passed the visibility grade. This is not some fancy scientific study of course, but what it tells me is that if I was a tourist interested in South African travel destinations, the Eastern Cape and its destinations would not be one of the options given to me.
Then I looked at who was visible in those first 10 travel sites and why. Cape Town was the brightest star.
The reason I surmised, is that Cape Town has mastered the marketing concept of travel destination linkages. I don’t know if such a concept exists, but it looks that way to me.
Addo is visible not as an Eastern Cape destination, but as a Cape Town-linked destination. In fact, the whole of what is called the Garden Route is linked to a Cape Town travel destination. Tourists are driven all the way from Cape Town to Addo but they do not leave the park to shop in Port Elizabeth. They go back to Cape Town or proceed to the next travel link .The Cape Town travel destination experience is linked to all sorts of destinations and it makes Cape Town a visible destination.
Perhaps we should learn from the Cape Town marketing strategy. First we need to expand the Garden Route product.
There is no reason why we should be telling tourists that the Garden Route ends at the Storms River Mouth. Leave that to geographers if they want to stick with that boundary story. We are not selling geography. We are selling an experience to our visitors. If that experience can also be found east of the Storms River, why not let our visitors enjoy it as well?
Travel agents could be informed about the extended Garden Route experience that stretches east from Storms River and includes Port Elizabeth, Addo, Port Alfred, East London , Port St Johns and the Wild Coast. — Wongaletu Vanda, via e-mail