Cape Town Tourism: Employing Digital Marketing in Tourism

In the early 2000’s, tourism in Cape Town was going through a bad phase. Safety and security of tourists, the setting in of recession, political instability, and inadequate infrastructure were some of the problems the city had to deal with. Till 2004, the local tourism organizations in Cape Town were doing their best but were not able to attract tourists. They therefore decided to merge and form a unified body ‘Cape Town Tourism’ in 2004. Cape Town Tourism began work for the development of tourism in Cape Town under the theme ‘Responsible Tourism’. Cape Town witnessed a gradual increase in the inflow of foreign tourists till 2007. But the following two years were not favorable. With Cape Town getting the chance to host the 2010 FIFA World Cup, however, the city tried to make every use of the opportunity. The result was the ever highest tourist inflow in 2010. Soon, as the tourism authorities had anticipated, Cape Town began to see a decline in the number of overseas visitors due to the ‘post event dip’ and global recession. Cape Town Tourism was, however, ready for that phase and it partnered with Ogilvy & Mather to launch a global marketing campaign designed to reposition the destination brand...