Pan African development website ElicitAfrica.com reports New York City’s official destination marketing organisation signed the partnership to boost tourism between Cape Town and New York City. This is the first agreement of its kind NYC & Company has signed with a destination marketing organisation on the African continent.
NYC & Company President and CEO Fred Dixon and Cape Town Tourism’s CEO Enver Duminy signed the agreement in New York, which will ensure a two-year alliance and includes a collaboration agreement for the sharing of best practices in tourism marketing and the exchange of marketing assets to boost reciprocal travel.
Dixon said New York City and Cape Town have a lot in common as capital cities of culture, cuisine and design. “We are looking forward to cultivating this productive tourism relationship in the year ahead.”
Dunimy said the announcement has been years in the making. “At the outset it was clear that New York is the ideal city for collaboration with Cape Town… We’re greatly encouraged by this tourism twinning agreement, after all, a city with a global reputation for world-class tourism is acknowledging that we have just as much value to offer the global traveler. We look forward to this partnership and to sharing the benefits with our communities.”
The city-to-city partnership includes a swap of marketing and advertising assets to be activated early next year to influence seasonal travel. In New York City, advertisements will appear on bus stop shelters and LinkNYC kiosks to promote Cape Town, reaching an estimated 17.6-million in media impressions. In Cape Town, an equivalent value of New York City advertisements will be featured through digital and out-of-home media.
South Africa is the largest African origin market for visitors to New York City with nearly 50,000 visitors in 2015. South Africa accounts for a nearly 30 percent share of African visitors to New York City.
The United States is currently Cape Town’s second largest international source market. In 2015, 30% of arrivals to Cape Town from the US originated at or traveled via New York City airports.