You’ve been seconded by the City of Johannesburg to create a brand-new vehicle with which to market Johannesburg to tourists. How did this come about?
I was employed by Southern Sun some six years ago to help build and manage the Sandton Convention Centre (SCC). Once it was built, we needed to find a big event that would put both the SCC and Johannesburg on the world map. Then we heard about something called Rio +10, investigated it, and got involved in the process of bidding for the World Summit on Sustainable Development.
It was during this process that I realised that the City of Johannesburg had no dedicated structure to help the SCC bid for big events. This was quite frustrating, because every other city in the world, including other cities in South Africa, have such structures.
We won the bid for South Africa, and for Johannesburg, which wasn’t a popular choice at the time. Some people thought Jo’burg wouldn’t be able to handle it, but we managed to hold on to it and, in the end, it was a great success.
During that time, I suggested to the City that we needed a dedicated structure, specifically one that included a convention bureau, so we put together a few proposals. After the success of the World Summit, the City decided we did indeed need such a structure and asked me whether I knew someone who could do the job.
So I went to my employers and asked: what now? The convention centre was up and running; what if I went and helped to get this thing off the ground? As they understood how this would benefit the SCC and the group as well as all other tourism products over the long term, they gave the go-ahead and that’s how the secondment came about.
When did you start and for how long are you contracted to Johannesburg Tourism Company?
In April 2003, on a three-year contract, so I’m about half-way through now.
What were your first steps?
In April last year, I started off with a paper clip and a file, squatting in a boardroom in the Metro Centre, with just a concept. But then we got some funding from the City, got a private-sector board appointed, and now, 18 months later, we have a business. In September last year, we moved into these premises [Grosvenor Corner, cnr Jan Smuts Avenue & 7th Avenue], we’ve appointed staff, we’ve had a second batch of funding from the City, and we’re working with many private sector structures.
Essentially, it’s a public-private partnership, which is unique in South Africa. Most of the other convention bureaux and tourism bodies are owned outright by their cities. This one is also owned by the City, but they have opened up opportunities for us to leverage our own funding and marketing support.
What are Jo’burg Tourism’s aims and objectives?
Our main aim is to increase the tourism economy of Johannesburg. We’re starting off a strong base – six million tourists come into the city per annum. The total value of this to the economy is valued at R7-billion. The question is: how do we get more tourists, especially business tourists, to stay longer? We get the numbers but our problem is the length of the average stay. Then, how do we get them to spend more money, to visit more attractions and also, how do we spread the impact of tourism geographically beyond just Sandton and Newtown to places like Soweto and Alex?
Most importantly, as part of our empowerment duties, how do we assist previously disadvantaged tourism businesses? Both my board and I believe that our role is to ensure the sustainability of already existing tourism businesses. We’re deliberately not being proactive about creating new businesses.
You mentioned a convention bureau earlier—
We opened the Convention Bureau in January this year, as a central part of Johannesburg Tourism, specifically to bid for major events, similar to the World Summit. I’m proud to report that we’ve won 24 so far. Our strategy is based on the idea of 12 plus one. This means, every year we aim to hold 13 events in that year: one mega city-wide event and, ideally, one international event per month.
For instance, we’ve just won the bid to host an international paediatrics conference in 2010. These events always need a long lead-up period. We conduct international research to find leads and we’re aiming chiefly at bringing new events to South Africa, mainly business conferences, so that we’re not competing with Durban and Cape Town, which have a different focus.
In your reception area, you have many publications on display. Do you maintain a presence elsewhere in the city – Johannesburg International Airport, for instance?
Obviously, one of our roles is the dissemination of tourism information. In the past, this was done mostly in a reactive manner. Tourism kiosks just sit there, waiting for people to come to them. What we’re trying to do differently is to change our strategy to active mode, to take the information to where the tourists are and not just waiting passively for them to come to us. We also disseminate tourist information through a vast network throughout Southern Africa and internationally, through SA Tourism’s hub offices. We also work very closely with Gauteng Tourism, using their distribution points.
Another way we’re doing this is with our mobile tourism office, which is a unique concept. We take it to all the big events, like Saitex and Decorex, and also to big sporting events. So, wherever tourists may gather, we go to them with information about what else there is to do in Johannesburg tonight, or tomorrow night — the night life, a cultural experience, Constitution Hill, a casino, whatever.
Similarly, through our website (www.johannesburgtourism.com) and through our electronic newsletter, What’s Hot in Jozi. We also respond to a lot of requests for information via telephone, fax and e-mail.
Previously, Jo’burg was a reactive tourism destination. People were coming here simply because the airport is the gateway for international traffic. Jo’burg’s not primarily a leisure tourist destination. Of the six million visitors who pass through here every year, about three million are domestic travellers, who come for business or family reasons.
Two million hail from the rest of Africa, often to do cross-border shopping or for medical reasons, and only one million are from other parts of the world. But this one million spends much more than all the three million domestic visitors together. Our longer term aim is to double the number of visitors from all quarters every five years. Our immediate objective is to get them to spend more time here — the slogan for this campaign is ‘Enjoy another day in Jo’burg”.