The City of Cape Town says its tourism strategy in 2012 will target the East and emphasise the whole city as a tourist destination, rather than just focusing on popular attractions.
Mayoral committee (Mayco) member for tourism Grant Pascoe and the city’s director of tourism, Nombulelo Mfeka, said that over the next few months the city would work towards “building the capacity” to appeal to potential visitors from Asia.
Because of a big language barrier, these strategies would have to be translated into Mandarin for Chinese visitors.
“We also have to speak to the cultural differences,” said Mfeka, emphasising that the East was a market the city would “look at in particular now”.
A key part of the city’s marketing strategy would involve investigating travellers’ behaviour, Mfeka said.
This would mean exploring why Asian people travelled.
Pascoe said he had recently been interviewed about the city by a television crew from Beijing, China. He said accolades such as Table Mountain being named as one of the New7Wonders of Nature, and Cape Town appearing on The New York Times’ list of the 10 hippest cities worldwide had boosted foreign interest in the city.
The city was in talks with Cape Town Tourism to develop strategies to hone in on the Asian market, Pascoe said.
“We haven’t even started marketing there yet and there’s already a strong interest,” he said.
Pascoe said it was also important to keep “the destination fresh”.
“It’s about adding more to the basket.”
He said travellers wanted more from their experience, and that while Cape Town was famous for its pristine beaches and landmarks like Table Mountain, it was important to build up areas across the city, away from the CBD, and turn these into tourist attractions.
One of the areas that was becoming a growing attraction was Lookout Hill in Khayelitsha, which featured a restaurant and a craft market, he said.
Similar hubs were developing in Langa and Gugulethu, and were changing people’s perceptions that “nothing was happening in the townships or on the Cape Flats”.
Pascoe said there also seemed to be an international move towards “volunteer tourism”.
“People are asking what they can do during their visit to offset the carbon footprint of their trip.”
In some cases tourists had asked to plant trees; in others, they had volunteered to help build houses.
“Hotels are under pressure to do more responsible tourism.”
Earlier this year, there was also resistance from some restaurant owners to the city’s new liquor laws.
The laws, when passed, will result in changes in terms of the time that alcohol can be served in outlets.
Mfeka said certain by-laws were necessary to make Cape Town a “responsible destination”.
“We say we are a safe city, a healthy city and one that is fighting substance abuse. Then we, as a city, (can’t) allow things that are in conflict with that.”
For Cape Town to be a viable tourist destination it must work “for Capetonians first”.
“Visitors to this city expect nothing less.”
l This is one in a series of interviews with all 11 Mayco members in which they highlight some of the more important projects in their portfolios. - Cape Argus