Mossel Bay Tourism will continue its ongoing participation in national and domestic shows when Dr. Peter Nilssen of Point of Human Origins Experiences attends the Johannesburg Travel Festival this weekend.
The Festival is affiliated to the New York and the Mossel Bay Travel Festivals.
“Shows and roadshows are important components of our marketing campaign, and they pay handsome dividends because they provide us with opportunities to speak directly with members of the public who are planning to go on holiday, and with members of the tourism trade who are selling – or could be selling – Mossel Bay as a destination,” said Mossel Bay Tourism’s Marcia Holm.
She said that Dr. Nilssen will attend the Joburg Travel Festival on Mossel Bay’s behalf because the dates coincide with a trip to Gauteng during which he’ll present his product to the chief marketing officer and the global product manager at South African Tourism.
Dr. Nilssen and fellow archaeologist Jonathon Kaplan identified the archaeology of Mossel Bay’s Pinnacle Point Caves in the late 1990s. These finds have since revealed the earliest evidence for modern human behaviour. More than forty international scientists from a large variety of disciplines have studied (and continue to study) the archaeology of Mossel Bay in what has become the largest scientific project of its kind in the world – and which is drawing increasing attention from the public, too.
“Finds in the Caves go back to 162,000 years ago, and one of the things that the studies have shown is that the Southern Cape is the birthplace of culture and advanced technology – and this is a truly unique differentiator for Mossel Bay as a destination,” said Dr. Nilssen.
“South African Tourism is naturally keen to communicate this, especially since the Mossel Bay finds follow on from the palaeontology of the Cradle of Humankind – which is the world’s richest hominin site, and which has revealed fossils of human ancestors dating back to four million years ago.”
“Human origins and human evolution tourism together make up one of the fastest growing niches in tourism today,” said Ms. Holm.
SHOWS AND ROADSHOWS
Ms. Holm said that Mossel Bay Tourism has attended a number of shows and roadshows since the start of the year.
“Many of the people we spoke to at the Beeld Holiday Show in Gauteng, and at the Getaway Show in Somerset West (both of which took place during March) said that they’d been to Mossel Bay for their annual holidays in December, but that they’d be coming back for short breaks – usually for special events like the recent Buffalo Rally, or for the Easter holidays.”
She said that show-goers – regular visitors as well as those who hadn’t been to Mossel Bay recently were receptive to the information provided by Mossel Bay Tourism.
“Again we saw that both our slogan (‘Mossel Bay. Do stuff’) and our ‘Things to do’ brochures speak directly to visitors and potential visitors alike because everyone wants first to know what they can do while they’re here.
“We found exactly the same reaction from consumers and members of the trade whom we spoke to during the six day long Vakantiebeurs (which took place during January in Utrecht, in The Netherlands, and which attracted more than 18,000 members of the tourism trade, and 117,000 consumers), and during our subsequent roadshow through eastern Holland, Belgium, and western Germany.”
The European roadshow was organised by Cape Hotels. Various products from the Garden Route, the Klein Karoo, and the Eastern Cape took part.
“The roadshow allowed me to present Mossel Bay to thirty one different tour operators in their own offices – and all the companies used the opportunity to train their staff about South Africa,” said Ms. Holm.
Plans for the rest of the year include attendance at World Travel Market in Cape Town (2 and 3 May: Mossel Bay Tourism will attend in the company of various local products); South African’s annual tourism Indaba (10 to 12 May Marcia: Mossel Bay Tourism will exhibit with Garden Route and Klein Karoo Tourism on the on the Wesgro stand); the Namibia Tourism Expo (4 to 7 June: a joint marketing exercise with the Oudtshoorn, George and Knysna tourism offices); and the Gauteng Getaway show (29 – 31 August).
In addition, Mossel Bay Tourism is currently arranging a roadshow for the tourism offices of the region to visit tour operators in Cape Town at the end of June (Hessequa, Oudtshoorn and Knysna have confirmed their participation).
“And we’ll once again end our 2014 shows programme in style like we did last year – with a Travel Festival of our own during October,” said Ms. Holm.
Details of the Mossel Bay Travel Festival can be expected during the current month. Mossel Bay Tourism’s ‘Mild Season’ campaign will be the organisation’s main selling feature at all shows and road shows between now and August. Please visit www.visitmosselbay.co.za/special-offers/mildseason2014 for details.
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