Durban - A new 40-minute National Geographic documentary highlighting Durban and Cape Town as international urban tourism hotspots was launched on the eve of the Tourism Indaba on Friday.
The documentary is part of a R40-million joint marketing venture with the Mother City and represents Durban’s biggest and most ambitious international tourism marketing campaign yet.
About 100 tourism industry bosses and media with city leaders and executives from National Geographic attended the showing of the documentary at the Playhouse. The documentary is set to be shown on the TV network over the next few months in key markets including Europe, Africa, the US, Asia and Australasia.
The World in Two Cities shows the sights, sounds, culture and traditions of the two destinations on pay TV networks from this month.
Speaking at the launch, deputy eThekwini mayor Nomvuso Shabalala said the decision to market Durban internationally had been made because, despite its assets, it was not known abroad as well as Cape Town and Joburg.
“This campaign originally included the three biggest cities, but Joburg dropped out. If they want to come back in they still can because the launch of this documentary marks the completion of the first phase of the campaign with National Geographic,” she said.
Partner
“We wanted to work with Cape Town and Joburg to increase the profile of South Africa’s major hubs. We can’t do it alone and need to partner with these cities that are already known internationally,” said Shabalala.
Lindsay Rocke, international sales director at National Geographic, said the channel was proud to partner Durban and Cape Town to show them as “emerging urban centres to watch” globally.
“Urban tourism is on the up globally. New and younger tourists want to experience cities not just from a tourist attraction perspective, they want to feel the heart of a city through its people, heritage, cultures and traditions. It’s all about multiculturalism and Durban and Cape Town are diverse melting pots,” she said.
The venture was part of a targeted multimedia campaign. In addition, short ads of Durban and Cape Town were done last year and flighted on the channel. There were also features and marketing in National Geographic’s magazines and on its online and social media platforms.
Mariette du Toit-Helmbold, the chief executive of Cape Town Tourism, said the partnership was “wonderful” because it exposed the urban side of Durban and Cape Town.
“This international collaboration tells the story of these two cities in a new way, showing the diversity, heritage and warmth of their people. One big thing the Fifa World Cup did for us was to showcase our major cities like never before. We have to build on this. Urban tourism has now outpaced safari and beach tourism.”
The World in Two Cities documentary features digital nomad Andrew Evans interacting with locals while walking the city streets visiting places like the Victoria Market and Durban’s “muthi” market. He also experiences township life in Umlazi, the historical Gandhi Settlement in Phoenix and the Hare Krishna Temple in Chatsworth. - The Mercruy