Market trends USA
Tourism businesses in Cape Town have their work cut out for them in terms of drawing visitors from the west, according to market trends provided by Imagine Global, Cape Town Tourism’s representative in the USA.
The biggest challenges cited for Cape Town in the American market is that the destination is still perceived as expensive due to airfare costs, and because Cape Town is included in mostly luxury packages.
Cape Town, however, is on par with eight other international cities when it comes to hotel prices, according to a survey released by Fedhasa. Results of the survey show that specifically four-star hotels in the Mother City are competitively priced, some 20% more reasonable than their international counterparts.
In terms of social media, Cape Town Tourism scores well, with almost a quarter of a million fans on the I love Cape Town Facebook page and almost 10,000 followers for Cape Town Tourism on Twitter.
This fits in with consumer trends, as 39% of travel agents in the USA now use social media as a marketing tactic. Online travel agency giants such as Expedia and Travelocity are growing more popular as 56% of consumers use these in the pricing and comparing stage of the purchasing process.
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Cape Town sitting on top of the world
Cape Town Tourism and our industry partners have worked consistently to position Cape Town and its diverse offerings as an exceptional urban destination; as a great place in which to study, work, invest, play and live. This has resulted in a number of accolades in recent times.
• The New York Times included Cape Town in an article titled Hip Cities That Think About How They Work and praised Cape Town for its use of design in transforming the city, as well as the local government for trying to build a more inclusive administration and development structure.
• The Condé Nast Traveler 2011 Readers' Choice Awards named Cape Town the Top City to visit in Africa and the Middle East for 2011. These awards reflect the opinions of more than 28 000 Condé Nast Traveler readers who rate the cities they have visited in the past year.
• The UK’s Huffington Post also named Cape Town one of the Top 10 Most Popular Study Abroad Cities.
• The Telegraph in the UK selected South Africa as one of the Top 10 Property Safe Havens Abroad saying it is “… a country like no other. Beyond its cities lies endless countryside with vast open plains, unspoilt villages and a burgeoning wine culture. All in the glow of a wonderful year-round climate. The country is also a natural destination for Britons. Cape Town is only two hours ahead of London, and everyone speaks English… What’s more, local agents say South Africa’s economy has avoided European and North American volatility.”
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