Mossel Bay Tourism’s Marcia Holm returned earlier this week from Buenos Aires where she represented the town at Argentina’s biggest tourism show – the FIT (Feria Internacional de Turismo de America Latina or the International Tourism Trade Fair of Latin America).
“We launched our South-South Strategy in September when I attended tourism workshops in Buenos Aires and Sao Paolo (in Brazil), but this is the first time we’ve had the opportunity to speak to the trade, the media and the public in this kind of open forum,” she said.
The South-South Strategy is a campaign to strengthen ties between Mossel Bay and the Western Cape Province on the one hand, and Latin American countries on the other. It rests on the four pillars of tourism, commerce, social welfare (including sport) and scientific discovery, and seeks to find ways in which these areas of endeavour can increase travel between the regions.
“Judging by the reception we received at FIT, this strategy is already a winner,” said Ms. Holm.
Although statistics for this year’s FIT have not yet been released, it is known that the gate exceeded last year’s, when 81,000 visitors – including 32,000 members of the tourism trade – came to view the offerings of 1,800 exhibitors.
“South Africa’s stand – which we shared with 19 other exhibitors, including 10 from South Africa and 9 major South American tour operators – was sponsored by our embassy for Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay, which also provided the services of about 10 translators for those of us who couldn’t speak Spanish.”
Ms Holm, however, recently attended a total immersion Spanish course (run in Mossel Bay by Armiger (Pty) Ltd on behalf of the University of Buenos Aires), and, like almost 200 of her fellow townspeople, now has a working knowledge of the language.
Mossel Bay has secured a contract to host the Paraguayan National Team for the FIFA World Cup in 2010, and this helped the town to attract the attention of the media at the show.
“I was interviewed by Fox Sports TV and on radio by Julio Ricardo, who is perhaps the best-known sports commentator and talk show host in Argentina,” said Ms. Holm.
“Both interviews began with the same question: ‘Rugby is South Africa’s Game – so how important is soccer?’
“I explained that whilst Rugby certainly is important to us, Soccer has by far the biggest following of any sport in this country.”
Whilst she was at the show, Ms. Holm was interviewed by Ana Paternostro for the prime time TV programme Mapamundi and by the weekly magazine Ladevi. She was also given an opportunity to deliver a short presentation about Mossel Bay to a meeting of tourism professionals. In total, Ms. Holm made personal contact with 150 tour operators from South America.
Importantly, she also met privately with Paraguay’s Minister of Tourism, Ms. Liz Cramer, who was at FIT to launch her country’s new marketing strategy, and with representatives of Argentina’s Secretariat of Tourism, whose main concern, said Ms. Holm, “was the marketing of Argentina to South Africa.”
Ms. Holm expressed Mossel Bay’s gratitude for the support that the town had received from the South African Embassy.
“Our Ambassador, Mr. Tony Leon, and his wife, Ms. Michal Leon, were regular visitors to our stand, and the staff of the Embassy just could not do enough for us,” she said.
“South Africa – and Mossel Bay – have much in common with South America, and this show has proved that our South-South Strategy will have long-term benefits that will stretch well past the 2010 World Cup,” said Ms. Holm.
Trackbacks/Pingbacks
Social comments and analytics for this post…
This post was mentioned on Twitter by Travel: Mossel Bay Tourism reports success on first International Tourism Trade Fair of Latin America exhibition http://bit.ly/8mrSzO...