Cape Town - Three Cape Town tourism partners took matters into their own hands and travelled to the Ukraine, where they focussed firmly on forcing a tourism recovery that would support tourism businesses in the City.
The delegation’s destination activation was held over three days in Kyiv, Ukraine, and included the promotion of South Africa and Cape Town to a variety of travel and trade role-players, where they actively promoted the City and the country in a concerted effort to support their business strategies.
Their visit was endorsed by the South African Ambassador to Ukraine. Ambassador André Groenewald said the embassy’s participation forms part of the Ministry of Tourism’s Global Advocacy Programme to re-activate the tourism industry in the country.
Groenewald said Ukraine and Eastern Europe were attractive and under-utilised source markets that could contribute to the revival of the tourism market in the country.
Leader of the delegation, Johan van Schalkwyk, Aquila Collection's marketing manager, said while they saw substantial support from Russia over the past three months, their data indicated a notable increase in enquiries and visits from Ukraine to Cape Town's Big Five safari properties, and therefore, it was decided to “strike while the iron is hot” and plan an in-destination activation, using Kyiv as the hub, to ensure Cape Town – and their tourism businesses – were top of mind for travellers in the immediate post-traumatic period of the pandemic.
A member of the delegation, Heidi Wahl, of First Diamond in the Cape Town CBD, said: “Ukrainian families and visitors were frequenting our studio and supporting the recovery effort over the last three months, and we were excited to partner and collaborate to infiltrate a new and inspiring market”.
The Cape Town office of Turkish Airlines joined the initiative to support the possible economic recovery of Cape Town’s tourism sector.
Trevor Brown, sales and marketing manager, expressed his excitement in participating in the initiative.
“As our route between Kyiv and Istanbul is the second-most supported globally, and the connection to Cape Town is easy and hassle-free, it makes perfect sense to bolster this easily accessible exotic destination for Ukrainians," said Brown.