Western Cape Tourism Sector Goes Digital

The Western Cape’s tourism sector’s meeting sessions will shift into the social media stratosphere at an industry meeting this month.

Alan Winde, Minister of Finance, Economic Development and Tourism, will host the Western Cape Government’s quarterly Tourism Plenary in Mossel Bay on 18 October 2013.

During these forums Minister Winde discusses the industry in general, but for the first time organisers will be live-streaming the sessions.

The plenary also marks the opening of the first Mossel Bay Tourism Festival.

Based on the model of the New York Festival, the Mossel Bay Festival is in line with global trends, with its digital travel marketing focus.

Minister Winde invited the founder of the New York Festival, Roni Weiss, to attend the inaugural Mossel Bay event.

“For the first time we will be live streaming the plenary session. I’m also looking forward to meeting Roni Weiss; I believe we are going to learn an enormous amount from him. Mossel Bay and the Province have already begun benefitting from the exposure we are receiving on the New York Travel Festival’s website.

“The affiliation between the two events is an exciting new way of getting our message to a much wider audience. Social media marketing is the future, and it is good to see one of our own towns using it to its best advantage,” said Minister Winde.

Marcia Holm, of Mossel Bay Tourism, explained the Travel Festival model.

“What sets the Travel Festival concept apart is that it’s designed as a mash-up of real world events and on-line activity, and we will be measuring its success largely by the amount of exposure we can create on the social media,” said Holm.