Mossel Bay Tourism goes mobile
26. Jan, 2009
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Garden Route – Almost everyone nowadays has a cell phone – which means that almost everyone has access to Mossel Bay. “Mossel Bay Tourism’s web site, www.visitmosselbay.co.za, has now been optimised for browsing on any cell phone that has access to the web,” said the chairman of the town’s tourism office, Neels Zietsman.
“This is enormously important because it makes our information available 24/7 – wherever and whenever anyone wants it,” he said.
The mobile phone has recently been recognised as the seventh of the mass media. The first, print, (books, pamphlets, newspapers, magazines, etc.) was introduced in the late 1400s; the second – recordings (on wax, disk, tapes, cassettes, cartridges, CDs and DVDs) – began in the late 1800s; cinema was introduced in about 1900, radio in 1910, television in 1950, the internet in 1990 and mobile phones became generally available from about 2000.
“Of all of these, print, recordings, the internet and mobile phones are by far the most accessible as marketing tools, and we now have significant presence in all of them,” said Mr Zietsman.
Accessing the Mossel Bay site on a mobile phone is as easy as it is on a computer, he said. “Just open your phone’s browser and type in the address – www.visitmosselbay.co.za (or just visitmosselbay.co.za) – and the site will come up.”
Mr Zietsman cautioned that not all mobile phones would be able to display all of the site’s features.
“On the top level pages, like the home page, many phones will only be able to read the text – but both text and photos should appear on your screen when you navigate to the lower-level pages,” he said.
“This is important, because it means that you should be able to see pictures on all our members’ posts.”
The site has its own search facility, which is active on both the mobile and the computer-based platforms.
Mr Zietsman said that the site was re-built to accommodate Web 2.0 (also known as the read-write web) last year and that this was done in order to make constant innovation fast and easy.
“The internet has opened so many opportunities, but the one that’s perhaps the most exciting is that your users can now communicate directly with you.
“This is why we set up a ‘My Mossel Bay’ page – so that fans of the town can post their favourite stories, photos and videos for everyone to see,” he said.
Access Mossel Bay on line (from your phone, your laptop or your home computer) at www.visitmosselbay.co.za – and go to www.visitmosselbay.co.za/share-my-mossel-bay to post you stories, pictures and videos.
My name is Muzi Mohale a full-time travel blogger, your host at Travelwires.com responsible for all editorial on this blog. I blog about the travel and tourism industry in Africa. Apart from blogging about tourism, I also run 
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