Cape Town Tourism: Employing Digital Marketing in Tourism

In the early 2000’s, tourism in Cape Town, South Africa, was witnessing its worst phase. In the year 2000, the city registered 770,000 overseas tourist arrivals, a 3% decline compared to 1999. According to a report by Wesgro in 1999, tourism in the city was the source of approximately 9% of Gross Regional Product and 9% of employment. Despite being a vibrant city, Cape Town was not able to attract foreign tourists in big numbers. To cope with the challenging situation, local tourism organizations in Cape Town merged together to form Cape Town Tourism in 2004. They got the golden opportunity to act as one of the host countries for the 2010 FIFA World Cup. Hosting the World Cup ensured that Cape Town got plenty of exposure all over the world. The city received a total of 1.5 million international tourists in 2010. However, there was a subsequent dip in tourist arrivals. This ‘post event dip’ was something industry experts had predicted and Cape Town Tourism had itself anticipated...