Social media strategy continues to reap benefits for Cape Town Tourism with their official Facebook fan page I © Cape Town hitting the 300 000 mark. This puts the fan page ahead of Samsung SA (227 000 likes), Mxit (263 000 likes) and 5FM (212 000 likes). It also sees the tourism marketing association nipping the heels of big SA brands like Vodacom (327 000 likes) and Woolworths (311 000 likes).
“Facebook has really worked for Cape Town Tourism,” says CEO, Enver Duminy. “We see our fan page as a community and we engage with that community regularly. It’s amazing to see how many previous visitors like our page so as to stay in touch and we have many homesick Capetonians who follow our posts and comment avidly on them. There is a great element of support and ownership from the fans.”
2013 saw Cape Town Tourism’s 2012 Facebook campaign Send Your Facebook Profile to Cape Town scoop a number of awards for agency Ogilvy & Mather, Cape Town. These included a Gold Loerie Award, two Bookmark Awards and a Cannes Gold Lion. Cape Town Tourism also received a Travel & Leisure SMITTY Award (Social Media in Travel + Tourism Awards) in the category Best Overall Use of Social Media: CVB, Global.
The hashtag #lovecapetown has become a social media moniker that lives beyond its origins on Cape Town Tourism’s social media platforms, although Cape Town Tourism does curate the hashtag as a resource for visitors on www.capetown.travel/lovecapetown.
In another social media coup for Cape Town; Facebook revealed that the V&A Waterfront is the most popular site for Facebook check-ins for Africa and the Middle East (SOURCE: USA Today).