Francois du Plessis

“During the past year the Garden

Route and Klein Karoo was

represented at prominent tourism

exhibitions in Germany, Belgium,

Brittain, Dubai and Scandinavia.”

Diana Martin, CEO of Plettenberg Bay Tourism, is very optimistic about the success of the consolidated effort of the Eden District Municipality. The strategic partnership among the main tourism bodies in the Southern Cape is bearing much fruit. The Eden District Municipality and tourism offices in George, Knysna and Plettenberg Bay decided last year to launch a broad-based marketing plan to promote the entire Garden Route and Klein Karoo as a single holiday destination.

CEO of Bitou Tourism Dianna Martin with Jason Powell from Causeway Coast & Glens during the Garden Route & Klein Karoo exhibition at the Holidayworld travel and tourism show in Belfast earlier this month.

The decision has resulted in the consolidation of the various tourism bodies' budgets. This enabled all the tourism bodies to be represented at large international exhibitions. According to Ilze Jacobs of the Eden District Municipality, the strategic partnership creates a perfect platform for the entire region to gain global exposure. “As single tourism entities, we would never have sufficient budgets to participate in such large-scale exhibitions. By pooling our resources, budgets and personnel, we are able to implement a marketing strategy under the banner of the Garden Route and Klein Karoo. As the official marketing arm of the region, we share the same marketing objectives which we're able to communicate on the same platform. The reaction we have had so far, indicates that we're on the right track.”

 The marketing initiatives play an important role in the local economic development of our region. In addition, skills development, training, and the transference of skills is an important cornerstone of each town's marketing plan for tourism, which further impacts the growth of tourism.

 Says Dianna Martin, CEO for Plettenberg Bay Tourism, “at these exhibitions we're competing against some of the world's top holiday destinations. So far, we've had a very positive response because our region offers a wide variety of attractions as a major draw card. We have a common goal and that is to grow our target audience and to increase the number of visitors to our region.”