New Partnership Drives Hope In Tourism District
An exciting tourism initiative in the western section of the Garden Route is set to become the blueprint for cooperative marketing and branding in South Africa. The Hessequa District has embarked on a re-branding and routing process that will be launched at the Albertinia Aloe Festival on 14 June.
The areas new tourism brand, The Explorer’s Garden Route, will be unveiled. “Tourists who transit through the area along the N2 will be encouraged to slow down and discover the area through the Explorer Routes and Breakaways that are being launched,“saysLED Head for the Hessequa Region Ms ElanaLotriet. “These themed options will guide visitors to the rich array of activities in the area.”
An extensive stakeholder consultation process has been led by well-known tourism consultants Jeanetta Marais and Shaun van Eck. They believe that visitor experiences are the new jokers in the tourism pack and that tourism businesses in the area are ideally positioned to provide authentic and ‘Nowhere else on earth’ experiences that will thrust the area to being a leading competitor in the explorer market segment. Workshops on how to create memorable visitor experiences have been run with products in each of the destinations, and these consumer-led experiences will be marketed by the Municipality and its partners.
The realisation of the project has been made possible by a proactive partnership between the HessequaDistrict Municipality and tourism businesses. “We realize that our brand will only be as strong as the experiences delivered to our clients by our tourism businesses and a lot of emphasis has, and will be, directed at raising this important area of performance. “An important aspect of this is being at the forefront of putting the needs and desires of our visitors at the center of everything we do,” says MsLotriet. “The exciting reality is that this is a brand in the making. We have targeted launching one new experience per month where visitors will be learning something by doing it with someone who lives there.”
The new experiences will complement the rich array of natural experiences that exist in the region. Media attending the launch will be exposed to the early processes of creating the new experiences and their feedback will determine the final formulation of the first experiences that will be put into the market later this year.
Lotriet believes that they are heading in the right direction to improve business and create more job opportunities through tourism. “My Council and Senior Management are determined to create real results and this partnership with tourism businesses is the first step in lifting the economic well-being of the area.”
For further info contact Shaun van Eck on 0828034298 or on e-mail at shaun@singlehanded.co.za.