Cape Town is looking beyond likes and views as it prepares for the next phase of tourism growth, with the City putting greater emphasis on digital marketing, international flights and turning online interest into actual bookings, ***Cape {town} Etc ***reports.
As Tourism Month begins, the City is using technology and industry partnerships to understand better where potential visitors are coming from and what is ultimately convincing them to travel.
A recent Learning Lounge session hosted by the City’s Tourism and Place Marketing Branch, together with Meta, brought tourism operators and industry experts to the Invest Cape Town Centre at City Hall.
The discussion reportedly focused on how artificial intelligence and Meta’s digital platforms are changing the way destinations reach travellers and, importantly, how that attention can be converted into economic activity.
For the City, the days of judging a tourism campaign simply by how many people saw it appear to be fading. Alderman Vos said the real test is whether marketing encourages people to take the next step.
‘My philosophy is very simple: marketing must be backed up by conversion.’
– Alderman Vos
The City’s international This Is Cape Town campaign offers an example of the scale that digital platforms can provide. It reached 55 cities across six continents and generated 250 million impressions across Meta platforms.
India was the biggest source of those impressions, accounting for almost 109 million, followed by Africa with nearly 42 million and South America with about 25 million. According to the city, this information is helping it identify where interest in Cape Town is strongest and use that insight to shape future campaigns.
New campaigns will target families, Cape Town’s markets and winter tourism, with the latter aimed at addressing the traditional seasonal swings in visitor numbers. This could be particularly important for a destination such as Cape Town, where tourism is closely linked to everything from accommodation and restaurants to attractions, transport and smaller local businesses.
Digital marketing can create interest, but travellers still need a way to get here. Cape Town currently has direct international connections to 31 destinations, while capacity has increased on several major routes, including Dubai, Doha, Istanbul, London and São Paulo.
Vos described the arrival of additional flights as one of the clearest indicators that Cape Town is making progress as an international destination. The City also wants to continue pursuing opportunities in markets such as India and China while strengthening links with Africa, Europe, North America and South America.
The focus on connectivity reflects a simple reality: a successful tourism campaign can generate millions of impressions, but those potential visitors still need accessible routes into the city.
The City is also taking a broader view of what makes Cape Town competitive. Its Tourism Strategy is currently being finalised and will require input from several areas of the municipality, including transport, safety and security, coastal management and community services. This is because the visitor experience does not begin at a hotel or tourist attraction.
Reliable transport, clean public spaces, safety, functioning infrastructure and well-managed beaches and coastal areas all contribute to how visitors experience Cape Town, and how residents experience the city too.
*‘Tourism doesn’t exist in isolation. The things that make Cape Town a great place to live are very often the same things that make it a great place to visit.’ *
– Alderman Vos
Cape Town recorded around 2.8 million overnight visitors last year, generating an estimated R24.5 billion for the local economy and supporting approximately 106 000 jobs. The City now wants to push those figures considerably higher.
Its ambition is to attract more than five million overnight visitors, increase tourism’s contribution to the local economy beyond R30 billion and move tourism-related employment towards 200 000 jobs. These are substantial targets, but the City believes Cape Town has the infrastructure, attractions, businesses and industry experience to pursue them.
The bigger challenge will be ensuring that growth is felt beyond headline visitor numbers. For local tourism businesses, more visitors can mean more spending across accommodation, food, entertainment, transport, retail and experiences. For the City, the task is to create the conditions that allow that spending to translate into jobs and broader economic activity.
Vos said the next stage will depend on government and the private sector working more closely together. The City wants to use its marketing data to create demand while making sure Cape Town itself is prepared when those visitors arrive. This means the tourism conversation is increasingly moving away from simply asking how many people saw Cape Town online.
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**Picture: **The City of Cape Town / Facebook
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