Mossel Bay Tourism AGM Please read on for: Chairmans speech New board members Resolutons Chairman’s speech It now seems clear that tourism in Mossel Bay is recovering from the lingering shock of the downturn which began in 2008. This follows international trends: according to the latest UNWTO World Tourism Barometer, “Demand for international tourism remained strong throughout the first eight months of 2013.” The world recorded about 747 million international tourist arrivals in the eight months to the end of August this year (about 38 million more than in the same period of 2012), while Africa as a whole received an additional two million arrivals in the first eight months of 2013 - an increase of 5%. According to the UNWTO report: “Emerging economies continue to lead international tourism expenditure, with all BRIC countries except India, reporting double-digit growth.” In addition, a survey conducted by the UNWTO during September showed that confidence in world tourism performed better than expected in the period May to August 2013. “The survey revealed a sharp increase in confidence among destinations and businesses, in particular among experts from advanced economies in line with the better than expected performance in world tourism. For the last four months of the year the Panel continues to be rather optimistic.” South African Tourism reports that this country received 640,231 arrivals from Europe in the first six moths of 2012, and 675,595 in the same period this year – an increase of 5.5%; and that Indian arrivals grew by 11.0%, from 53,291 to 59,1615 over this period. Of concern, though, is that SA Tourism estimates that the number of domestic trips is falling: from 5,4 million in the first quarter of 2012, to 5,3 million in the first quarter of 2013 – a decrease of 3%. The good news for us, though, is that Mossel Bay seems to be following the international trend, while at the same time bucking the domestic trend. According to the members I’ve spoken to, we’re seeing increased visitor numbers from our traditional source markets in Europe, a growing presence of visitors from India, and positive forward bookings from our domestic market. This is the context in which we find ourselves today, and I think we can approach the 2013/14 summer season with confidence. But even though the macro-indicators are looking good for us, our own tourism economy wouldn’t have weathered the economic uncertainties of the past four or five years with the resilience it has without a sustained marketing campaign. You’ve all received my report by e-mail, so it’s not necessary for me to go through every part of our marketing activities item-by-item here. But I’d like to mention two achievements from the past year which have put us at the forefront of destination marketing in the Western Cape. These are the performance of our web site, and the success of the Mossel Bay Travel Festival. WEB SITE Visitmosselbay.co.za has grown exponentially over the last 12 months: where it was attracting an average of around 26,000 visitors a month in the quieter months of 2012, it regularly attracted 35,000 and more during winter this year, and last month – October – it received 46,015 visitors, and used a 30 gigabytes of bandwidth. In total, it attracted more than 457,000 visitors in the 12 months to the end of October! We achieved this success through consistent work on the site, by regularly uploading quality content, and by sharing that content via our social web streams on Twitter and Facebook. As a result of this, the site consistently ranks in the top three for organic searches for Mossel Bay – and I think this alone should be a powerful argument for members to make more use of the site for their own benefit. I would therefore appeal to everyone to please provide us with text, photographs, and links to your YouTube videos t so that the staff can keep your pages up to date. MOSSEL BAY TRAVEL FESTIVAL The other milestone for which we can congratulate ourselves is the inaugural Mossel Bay Travel Festival. Although the event might have seemed quite small to those of us who took part, it attracted attention from around the world, it increased Mossel Bay’s presence on the social web, and it had the desired affect of influencing the hosted buyers who came from Cape Town: all ten of them said afterwards that they would definitely be sending business our way in the future. As you may know, WESGRO sponsored flights for Roni Weiss, the founder of the New York Travel Festival, to come to Mossel Bay for our event, and we’ve officially affiliated the two - which means that we’ll be represented in the USA when they hold their next Festival in April, and we’ll benefit from the exposure we’ll receive via their social web strategy. Next year’s Mossel Bay Travel Festival will take place on the 26th, 27th, and 28th of September, and I really urge all members to take part – especially by exhibiting on the second day, and offering tours and outings on day 3. They say that from small seeds mighty oaks will grow, and judging by Roni Weiss comments, the Mossel Bay Travel Festival is set to become one of those mighty oaks. “In some ways,” he said, “I think you were more successful than we were.” OPERATIONS On the operations front, things have moved quite smoothly for the company over the last twelve months, and really all I need to do here is to offer my special thanks to our Mayor, Alderlady Marie Ferreira, and to her Council, as well as to my fellow directors and our staff an consultants for their support and hard work during my tenure as chairman. As you know, the board is made up of four directors nominated by the Council, and five directors who’re elected by our members, and who serve on a voluntary basis - and I’d like to thank each of them individually: Dr. Michele Gratz, Alderman Emil Scheepers, Councillor Petru Terblanche, Ms. Suzette Van Wyk, Ray Murray, Fred Orban, Koos Schutte, and Jauckie Viljoen. I’d also like to mention Edward Jantjies and Harry Hill for their help from the municipality’s side, as well the members of our staff: Marcia Holm, Zelda Sauls, Alison Gilliomee, Dulin Sinkfontein, Christof van Tonder, Jenny Sydon, Ilé-Colette Kok, and Martin Hatchuel. And finally, thank you, the members of Mossel Bay Tourism – because without your support, this company could not exist. I wish you all the best for the coming season, and for the new year: may it be our best ever. More information about Mossel Bay: visitmosselbay.co.za New Board The following people have been elected to serve on the board for 2013/14 Werner Kok (Hotels & resorts sector) Louis Cook (Guest houses & B&Bs) Attie Roos (Self catering) Jeanetta Marais (Business) Fred Orban (Activities) Resolutions All resolutions put to the meeting were passed unanimously
Posted on: Fri, 22 Nov 2013 10:22:15 +0000
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