Letter to Nelson Mandela Bay Tourism Members

Glimmer of Hope

This past long weekend has given us at Nelson Mandela Bay Tourism a glimmer of hope for the rest of this year, especially the Summer Season. Several of our hotels ran occupancies of over 80% and this finally speaks to our local market feeling more comfortable to travel and having built up some disposable income.

So, a couple of quick thoughts looking ahead:

The Summer School Holidays

We do not believe that this is a year to charge full high season prices. Please realise that many people will not be getting bonuses and disposable income amongst our markets will still be under some pressure. Please emphasise, when talking to potential customers, that we understand the situation and deeply care about this. I would also like to suggest that you consider value-added activities that you include in the price if you are an accommodation establishment. This could be a full comp on an activity or a big discount that you can negotiate with one of the activity providers and then subsidise partly from your income.

Super Hosts

Many of our visitors will not have had a holiday since the start of lockdown last year. We need to partner in providing them with the best possible holiday experience. Please make sure that, whatever sector of the industry you are in, that you passionately promote other activities and experiences that our guests could enjoy. Let’s be the most recommended destination on social media this summer.

NMBT as a Partner

Our Board Members have led sessions to brainstorm the future of our organisation. We now better understand our role as collaborators with the municipal tourism department. Our overriding sense is that our purpose into the future will be to focus on our member tourism businesses in NMB. We would like to partner in making sure that, through the progressive innovative experiences that you provide, that Nelson Mandela Bay becomes the most recommended destination on social media and tourism ratings sites. We have a lot of products and services at the moment but very few true compelling experiences that are unique to NMB.

International Tourism

There is a lot of the hype at the moment about coming off red lists and some countries opening travel to and from our country. Please do not rely on a huge jump in foreign tourists. I believe that this sector of our market will gradually bleed back in, but will only reach 2019 levels during 2023/24. So, keep the good work up in the local markets and make them feel like royalty.

Communication

This aspect has been terribly challenging during the virus period. We have focused on dedicating our meagre resources to doing things and the communication to you of these efforts has been poor. In October we will start a series of networking and ideas sessions with you as our members. This will be done through a virtual networking package that has been sponsored by Magnetic Storm.

A Spirit of Service

I would love it if you could join me in finding away to thank our Board Members for the last three years of dedicating huge chunks of their time as volunteers, and who are passionate about your success as tourism operators. They face the same challenges as you in this dreadful time but have still passionately given a lot of the daily time to making tourism better for all of us.

AGM

It’s on the 19 October. Details to follow soon. If anything has emerged strongly during the COVID period, it is that we can no longer be Lone Rangers. Our future success and growth will be pretty much in proportion to the collaboration between our stakeholders and the experiences that we provide to our visitors as a team through on their visit to NMB.

Best wishes for the Summer

Know that we are doing everything that we can, in partnership with the EDTA team, to boost our arrivals and take advantage of the opportunities as demand increases. Look out for the launch off our new brand and action plan. Yes, we will communicate that to you!