Three Of The Best On Our Doorstep

Yes, we have three blue flag beaches right here in Hermanus. Hawston Beach, Grotto Beach and Kleinmond Beach.
South Africa is the only country outside of Europe that adheres to the international criteria when it comes to the grading our beaches. I certainly hope that you are pointing this fact out to your potential guests.

Social Media Marketing, Get To Grips With It...

Overheard in a marketing meeting recently, "Oh, I prefer looking at adverts in a hard copy magazine."

Is this a form of intelectual suicide? Can one really afford to sit back and not engage in cutting edge technology and the most exciting marketing possibilities. A doctor refers you to a specialist for in-depth analysis. Why, because the specialist has kept abreast of latest discoveries, innovations and remedies by spending valuable time researching his particular subject on the web.

Surely then, it goes without saying that, making use of modern technology at our fingertips is the way to go?

The emergence of social media and the resulting shift of control from suppliers to consumers - who increasingly distrust formal advertising and instead make choices based on online word-of-mouth, reviews and referrals from their online friends - constitute the biggest media revolution of our times. Spending on social media advertising has increased dramatically recently while print media advertising is in decline.

Social media also means that, if it is used effectively, any small business can now compete with and have the same global advertising reach as big international companies. Where has this been possible before? An active social media marketing campaign is far more effective than a dull stagnant website or magazine ad.

Because of smart phones and the mobile web, people now have instant access to their social network applications as they travel, which is not possible with their desk PC. Smart phones are going to take over from notebooks and laptops internationally before we know it.

Social media marketing is here to stay, for good. Embrace this technology and prosper.

How Compatible Is Your Website?

With more and more people acquiring and using the advanced features of smartphones, is your Website compatible with these browsers?

Just because you can view your website layout as you designed it on your PC screen, don't be fooled. It looks nothing like that on my Blackberry. Text boxes and images are scrambled as if the web designer was on his dose of tic.

Have your web designer make the necessary changes to the site, as more and more people are moving away from browsing on their PC's and finger-tapping on their smartphones.

Just You Wait Enry Iggins, Just You Wait

I read this article this morning and just had to share it with all of you.

The brits were slating SA for raising prices prior to the World Cup and in the far reaches of my little brain I kept thinking- Just you wait Enry Iggins, just you wait... Let's now wait for the security issues (which we did not have I might add) to crop up. And with Mr Cameron's fiscal cuts coming along nicely. Show me a South African hotel which doubled its room rate and I'll show you...

Hotels are set to more than double their prices during the 2012 Olympic Games, but doing so could cause long-term damage to corporate business an expert has claimed.
Basing its predictions on data gathered during the Vancouver Winter Olympics, market intelligence company Rubicon believes hotels in the capital (London) can expect to see profits leap during the summer of 2012.
However, hoteliers are being warned to watch their margins so as not to turn off business from the corporate sector, which is expected to plunge by up to 80 per cent during the period.

Andy Storey, managing director for Rubicon Europe, said that high room rates could potentially damage business in the long term. "Generally hotel owners fail to put enough attention on the shoulder seasons either side of sporting events, and this is what causes them to do worse than in ‘normal' years," he said. "It is no surprise that hotels will be busy during the event itself, but London properties should heed warnings and set pricing and market accordingly."

By Becky Paskin - ehotelior.com

We Are In The Top Ten

Top 10 Attractions in Cape Town & Western Cape

1. Table Mountain Cable Way
Table Mountain, the breathtaking backdrop and icon of Cape Town & the Western Cape extends its welcome to all visitors. The Cableway takes you to the summit in under 10 minutes and the cable car's rotating floor ensure that all passengers get a 360 degree aerial view of the city.

2.Victoria & Alfred Waterfront
The very epitome of African chic, the V&A Waterfront a unique shopping & entertainment environment, is South Africa's most visited tourist attraction with about 10 million visitors a year.

3. Kirstenbosch National Botanical Gardens
Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden is world-renowned for the beauty and diversity of the Cape flora it displays and for the magnificence of its setting against the eastern slopes of Table Mountain. Kirstenbosch grows only indigenous South African plants.

4. Robben Island
Robben Island, some seven kilometres off the coast of Cape Town, is where former South African President and Nobel Laureate Nelson Mandela, alongside many other political prisoners, spent decades imprisoned during the apartheid era.

5. Cape Agulhas - southernmost tip of Africa!
Cape Agulhas is the southernmost tip of the vast African continent where the mighty Indian and Atlantic oceans meet. Interestingly, a compass shows no real deviation between true north and magnetic north at this spot, and Agulhas also boasts one of the oldest working lighthouses in South Africa.

6. Cape Point Nature Reserve
Cape Point is the southwestern most tip of Africa and forms part of the Table Mountain National Park which stretches from Signal Hill in the north to Cape Point in the south. Nowhere else in the world does an area of such spectacular beauty and such rich bio-diversity exist almost entirely within a cosmopolitan city. Since 2004, it also forms part of the Cape Floral World Heritage Site.

7. The Whale Coast
Drive to the fishing village of Hawston and stop at Hermanus - the world's best land-based whale-watching spot. Hermanus is the only town in the world to boast a Whale Crier who ensures that visitors don't miss out on spotting the oceans gentle giants.

8. The Cape Winelands
Take a drive along the Western Cape's many wine routes and visit global award winning wine farms for a spot of wine tasting, cellar tours and an opportunity to purchase some good local, internationally recognised wines.

9. The Garden Route
From Mossel Bay to Plettenberg Bay, the Garden Route with its lush forests and wide meandering rivers is an adventure playground for scuba diving, golfing, surfing, snorkelling, kayaking, canoeing, rafting, biking, hiking, flying, hang-gliding, paragliding, ballooning and parachuting ... and bungee jumping!

10. The West Coast's wild flowers & fishing villages
The Cape West Coast dotted with fishing villages like Yzerfontein, St Helena Bay and Elandsbaai, is also renowned for its spectacular shows of spring wild flowers (July to October) where more than 8 600 species of flowers occur of which 68 percent are found nowhere else in the world.

Why A Static Website?

You may have designed a website for your hotel ages ago, and even spent a lot of money to do so, thinking that you would only have to do it once. Unfortunately, you were wrong. Like everything else related to running a business, updates are required to ensure continuing success. Imagine if you had been running a retail clothing outlet since the 1980s. Would you still be selling the same clothes you offered twenty or more years ago? Actually, with the way fashion trends recycle, you might be.

The point is, you need to get with the times! An outdated website can quickly become a detriment to the progress and growth of your business, even if you think it has all the elements required to attract patrons to your hotel. So here are just a few reasons you might want to consider an overhaul that brings your site out of the dark ages and into the bright glow of a computer monitor.

1. Refresh to impress.

2. Connect with new clients.
3. Compete, for goodness sake!
4. De-clutter.
5. Get trendy.

Source: Travel Wires

Spend Money To Make Money

Further to the earlier blog: The Cape Whale Coast Destination Marketing Organisation (CWC DMO) should put together a grand scale marketing package for overseas travel agents. Select the group carefuly and invite them here and then 'Wine 'n Dine' them with a slick performance that would win Oscars.

"All it takes is a little planning to reap great rewards", so says Dave Snoek partner in Southern Stroll Marketing, a Hermanus based destination and retail marketing company.