QUARTERLY MANAGEMENT
REPORT TO CITY OF CAPE TOWN
October – December 2013
Enver Duminy – Chief Executive Officer
Table of Contents
PURPOSE OF REPORT .......................................................................................................................................... 2
FOR INFORMATION / NOTING ONLY .................................................................................................................. 2
1.
Executive Summary ..................................................................................................................................... 2
2.
FINANCE & CORPORATE SERVICES .............................................................................................................. 5
A.
Finance .................................................................................................................................................... 5
B.
Human resources .................................................................................................................................... 7
3.
TOURISM MARKETING ................................................................................................................................ 8
4.
TOURISM SERVICES ................................................................................................................................... 11
5.
A.
Visitor Services ...................................................................................................................................... 19
B.
Industry Services ................................................................................................................................... 22
eBUSINESS SERVICES ................................................................................................................................. 24
1
PURPOSE OF REPORT
The purpose of this report is to provide information on the financial performance of the Grant-in-Aid
provided to Cape Town Tourism (CTT) by the City of Cape Town (CoCT) for the month of ending 31
December 2013 for Visitor Services, Tourism Marketing and Special City Projects.
FOR INFORMATION / NOTING ONLY
This report is submitted to the CoCT Tourism Directorate for information; in terms of the Memorandum of
Agreement (MoA) governed by the Municipal Finance Management Agreement Act, 2003 (Act 56 of 2003)
and Annexed Service Schedules between CoCT and CTT for the agreed period of 01 July 2013 to 30 June
2014. As contracted, CTT will provide the City with monthly financial reports reflecting CTT’s performance
in terms of this agreement; however the Directorate has requested an up-to-date report for quarterly
tranche funding payment to be submitted along with our invoice.
1. Executive Summary
Cape Town’s tourism sector is reporting a busy summer season so far, with hotels, restaurants, attractions
and tourism services anticipating an increase of at least single digits across the summer season in visitor
and tourist numbers. Looking at the performance indicators for November 2013, our initial forecast of an
increase in tourism numbers during the Summer Season has been confirmed. Most of the big tourism
attractions have reported a Year on Year increase as well as growth of 5.20% in occupancy numbers for
accommodation establishments. Cape Town International Airport has also indicated an upturn in total
arrivals compared to November 2012.
As we reach the halfway mark of our financial year 2013/14, I am pleased to report that we are on track to
achieve at least two of our three strategic and tactical objectives for the reporting period, viz. Increasing
Demand and Organizational Sustainability. Our total income of R23.4 million (YTD) was realized with R4.6
million (20% of total) attributed to self-generated income. Total of R21.2 million made up of R11.4 million
2
(Opex) and R9.9 million (Salaries), was spent YTD resulting in a surplus of R2.1 million (+57% YTD variance).
The company’s self-generated income exceeded the targets by almost R578k (14% positive variance) as at
end of December 2013. The main contributing factor in exceeding our targets is income from our revised
Strategic Partnership Program. Our total income remained constant year-on-year; however certain
business unit activities like SANParks Commission and Retail Sales have fallen behind budget are being
actively monitored and managed.
Cape Town International Airport (CTIA) reported that it welcomed almost 4.2 million passenger arrivals for
the full 2013 calendar year, which is 1.7% less than 2012 and the third best year ever for CTIA. Despite the
annual decline in total arrivals, the quarter under review was 1% higher than the same quarter of the
previous year. International and Regional arrivals accounted for 229 000 passengers which is 10% higher
than the same quarter of 2012.
Visitor numbers for the Info Centre network showed a 10% decrease compared to the same period in
2012. The combined network received 78 501 visitors during this quarter which is a 27% increase on
previous quarter. Telephone enquiries for the network showed a decrease of 1% compared to Q2 of 2012
and email enquiries for the network decreased with 10% year on year. Telephone enquiries increased with
45% compared to the previous quarter. The top 3 contributors to domestic visitors are Western Cape
(74%, 1% up from the previous quarter), Gauteng (9%, 1% up from the previous quarter) and KwaZulu
Natal (4%, same as previous quarter). The top contributors to international visitors are Germany (26%,
10% up from the previous quarter), UK (13%, same as the previous quarter), and USA (8%, 3% down from
the previous quarter). 48% of visitors were from the domestic market and 52% from international market.
The Cape Town metropolitan accommodation sector registered positive growth across all three
performance indicators in November 2013 when compared to performance registered in respect of
November 2012. When compared to market‐wide expectations registered a month ago, room night
demand was considerably stronger than anticipated; approximately 12.5% higher with actual average
room rate achieved approximately 37% higher than forecast. Consequently actual RevPAR performance
was approximately 37% above expectations registered a month ago.
3
At the time of reporting we were still finalizing the attractions and accommodation performance for
December 2013, however from our forecasting we expected Occupancy to be around 75% and 73% for
December 2013 and January 2014, respectively. For attractions we are forecasting a single digit increase in
visitor numbers averaging between 5% and 9% year on year, as whether conditions this December were
more favourable than 2012.
CTT participated on two international trade shows viz. SAT Netherlands Roadshow and World Travel
Market in London. E-marketing website and social numbers are growing steadily, although referral traffic
and Facebook numbers are down y/y due to the Facebook campaign and promoter posts being run at the
same time last year. E-mail communications are maintaining standard opening rates, excluding the Visitor
Newsletter also showing a decrease due to the Facebook campaign. Database sizes have decreased slightly
due to a clean-up process conducted over the last few months. Media hosting numbers are increasing YOY
due to interest around WDC2014 and the number of events supported has drastically increased as we are
no longer providing financial support, only online marketing which enables us to support more events.
Media ROI shows the expected results of being lower YOY due to our strategic decision to decrease
corporate communications. Summer communications highlighted key messages of WDC 2014, responsible
tourism, safety, value and events with the central theme of nightlife for November.
The uncertainty associated with a change in leadership has been for the most part without major
disruption to our performance to date, however the road ahead for the remaining fiscal will not be an easy
one to achieve, especially on the self-generated income in certain business units. I remain quietly
confident that we are on track to achieve our agreed annual results, and a half-year budget adjustment
review will provide clarity on our status, and applicable changes will be determined thereon.
4
2. FINANCE & CORPORATE SERVICES
A. Finance
Please see December 2013 Abridged Financial Statements attached.
Halfway through the financial year, Cape Town Tourism has achieved a surplus of R2.1 million.
Management is the process of preparing a half year budget review. The reviewed budgets will become
operational in the second half of the financial year.
Cape Town Tourism’s YTD income is R23.4million. The YTD income includes self-generated income of
R4.6 million. CTT’s self-generated income currently exceeds the targets by 14 %. As mentioned in the
previous reports, the main contributing factor in exceeding our targets is income from our Strategic
Partnership.
In the month of December 2013, Cape Town Tourism made self-generated income of R748K and this
was 8 % below target. The main reason for the 8% variance was the reversal of Turkey delegation
income during December 2013. The City Of Cape Town instructed CTT to reverse accommodation for
CTT staff from the invoice billed to the City Of Cape Town in November 2012. Unfortunately until now,
the invoice remains unpaid.
Retail Sales and Commission from SANP are a major concern as these income streams are falling
behind target. However, management remain confident that the measures put in place now by the
Visitors Services will show positive results in future. Cape Town Tourism is running an advertisement
and competition from 8th of January 2014 to 26 January 2014 on Bok Radio, the team is also working
on implementing a short term marketing strategy to boost SANP income from now until the end of the
financial year.
Membership team is performing very well this year. As at end of December 2013, the team exceed
their YTD target by R33K.
The total YTD expenditure as at end of December 2013 is at R21.2 million against a YTD budget of
R21.4 million. This is a positive 1% percent variance compared to budget. As illustrated in Figure 1
below, it is pleasing to note that halfway down the financial year, all business units are still operating
within their budgets and the company has achieved a surplus.
Figure 2 below shows the total expenditure split as at end of December 2013.
The Salaries bill is 47 % of total expenditure. YTD salaries bill is at R9.9 million and has a 2 % variance
to YTD budget. Due to high volume of staff taking their annual leave in December, the Provision for
leave pay decreased by R112K, which is a 17% decrease from last month. Finance and Corporate
Services account for 24 %, Tourism Marketing 21 %, Tourism Services 7 % and finally Strategic Planning
accounting for 1 % of total expenditure excluding salaries.
5
December 2013 Abridged Financial Statements
5
Figure 1 : Actual Vs Budget as at 31 Dec 2013
R23 389 813
R22 812 168
25,000,000
20,000,000
15,000,000
10,000,000
R2 139 851
R1 364 959
5,000,000
Actual
Budget
YTD Income
YTD Expenses
Surplus / (Loss)
(5,000,000)
(10,000,000)
(15,000,000)
(20,000,000)
(R21 447 209)
(R21 249 961)
(25,000,000)
Figure 2 : December 2013 YTD Expenditure Split
Finance & Corporate
Services, (5,040,818),
24%
Strategic Planning,
(153,158), 1%
Salaries, (9,893,637),
47%
Tourism Marketing,
(4,567,396), 21%
Tourism
Services,
(1,594,952),
7%
6
B. Human resources
Workforce movements
The total workforce profile for December was 84 staff members, of which 70 is on permanent
contracts and 14 is on Fixed Term Contracts which includes Independent Contract (project based)
agreements as well as Internship (work based learning) opportunities.
We had 1 termination (end of contract) during the month of December and one temporary employee
who assisted with receptionist relief.
Currently there are no vacancies within the organisation.
We currently have 2 staff members on maternity leave.
Salaries budget
Payroll budget remains in line with projected calculations, with small saving, mainly due to current
vacancies not yet placed and also a reduction in leave pay provision.
Training and Development
During this month there have been 46 training interventions of which all training interventions was
external training opportunities.
43 staff members attended isiXhosa language training, facilitated by Ubuntu Bridge, the other 3 staff
members attended ITIL training.
BEE
The first phase (sharing outcomes from first round workshops with ExCo, ManCo and rest of staff) has
been initiated. All input/feedback will be used to unfold strategy further. Feedback from equity survey
will also be used to define strategy.
Staff Uniforms
New staff uniforms were issued in December to frontline staff. Feedback on the new uniforms will be
monitored.
Recommendations
Employee Birthday Leave recommendation was submitted to FINCO – tentatively approved subject to
ratification by Board.
Upcoming in the next month
 Cultural Diversity programme to roll out during month of January 2014.

eLearning opportunity for Excel training during the next 3 months.

Discovery Vitality sessions to be held during February 2014.
7
3. TOURISM MARKETING
Overview
This quarter kicked off with the CTT AGM and the launch of the Cape Town Visitors Guide, both
eliciting favorable results. Summer communications highlighted key messages of WDC 2014,
responsible tourism, safety, value and events with the central monthly themes of nightlife, festive,
family, design and shopping.
Trade was strongly focused on promoting WDC 2014 via the Toolkit and Trade Newsletter, likewise
media hosting numbers are increasing YOY due to interest around WDC2014. Events supported has
drastically increased as we are no longer providing financial support, only online marketing which
enables us to support more events. The decrease in media value year on year can be attributed to CTT
decreasing pro-active releases in order to assist media with reactive media queries over the summer
and festive season. Another reason could be the steady introduction of the new CEO to own the
public platform.
E-marketing website and social numbers are growing steadily, although referral traffic and Facebook
numbers are down YOY due to the facebook campaign and promoter posts being run at the same time
last year. E-mail communications are maintaining standard opening rates, excluding the Visitor
Newsletter showing a decrease due to our database clean-up process over the last few months. We
have reached 300 500 fans on our Facebook page this quarter, making us the highest ranking
destination fan page in South Africa and the 35th most liked page in South Africa.
Highlights:
Media Hosting:
22 media groups, with total media pax of 58
Media ROI:
R4 984 338.13
Events:
146 events were supported this quarter
Trade:
Over 70 travel trade meetings and 2 media interviews at WTM
Training over 300 Dutch travel trade at the SAT Netherlands Roadshow
Toolkit and Trade Newsletter focused on promoting WDC2014
Campaigns:
42.2 million impressions (vs 38.3 million in 2012) achieved in #lovecapetown
E-mail Comms:
22.59% Industry Newsletter opening rate
21.11% Trade Newsletter opening rate
31.67% Industry Newsflash opening rate
20.80% Visitors Newsletter opening rate
Website:
279 160 visitors
716 334 page views
02:34 average dwell time
Blog:
85 posts throughout the quarter
4,821 pageviews for top performing Blog: New Year's Eve 2013 Events
Social Media:
7500 Facebook growth in likes, 302 274 total
4962 Twitter growth in followers, 36 560 total
Walking Tour App: 2903 this quarter and 11 934 downloads to date
Visitors Guide:
Launched at the CTT AGM 2013, 1 month ahead of schedule
8
Marketing Calendar
9
Key Activities and Highlights
Events :

Total events supported for the quarter:
Events Supported for the month of October:
Events Supported for the month of November:
Events supported for the month of December:

Member VS Non-member events:
October:
23 member events vs. 26 non-member events
November:
20 member events vs. 32 non-member events
December:
22 member events vs. 23 non-member events
146
49
52
45
Campaigns :
 #lovecapetown: The #lovecapetown campaign ran from 17th Sep - 7th Oct 2013, successfully
addressing the core objectives highlighted below. In addition, the campaign was updated from the
2012 format by using a range of bloggers in order to position CPT to different audiences (travel, food
and design) and the amount of campaign exposure was increased via additional platforms being
incorporated - Instagram and dedicated page on website.
o
o
Create online awareness and consideration for CPT on an international, domestic and local
level: CTT hosted 3 x international, 1 x domestic and 17 local bloggers.
Generate online conversation and content comparable to the 2012 campaign: 2013 hit a
record high with 42.2 million opportunities to see (38.3 million in 2012) on twitter and over
3,700 unique conversations about Cape Town.
Example of Cape Town blogs generated from the campaign:
Rachelle Lucas (food) | Abigail King (travel) | Carol Lucas (design)
11
Trade :

Total events supported for the quarter:
Events Supported for the month of October:
Events Supported for the month of November:
Events supported for the month of December:

Member VS Non-member events:
October:
23 member events vs. 26 non-member events
November: 20 member events vs. 32 non-member events
December: 22 member events vs. 23 non-member events
146
49
52
45
Campaigns:

#lovecapetown: The #lovecapetown campaign ran from 17th Sep - 7th Oct 2013, successfully
addressing the core objectives highlighted below. In addition, the campaign was updated
from the 2012 format by using a range of bloggers in order to position CPT to different
audiences (travel, food and design) and the amount of campaign exposure was increased via
additional platforms being incorporated - Instagram and dedicated page on website.
o
o
Create online awareness and consideration for CPT on an international, domestic
and local level: CTT hosted 3 x international, 1 x domestic and 17 local bloggers.
Generate online conversation and content comparable to the 2012 campaign:
2013 hit a record high with 42.2 million opportunities to see (38.3 million in 2012) on
twitter and over 3,700 unique conversations about Cape Town.
Example of Cape Town blogs generated from the campaign:
Rachelle Lucas (food) | Abigail King (travel) | Carol Lucas (design)
Trade:

SAT Netherlands Road Show: Attended by CTT’s Netherlands representative, the 4 day
roadshow held from 28th Oct – 1st Nov 13 was attended by over 300 Dutch travel trade.
South Africa was well represented with 25 products participating.

WTM, London: Attended by 2 x CTT reps (Enver Duminy and Inge Dykman), the 4 day Trade
Show held from 5th – 8th November 13 was extremely successful with WTM reporting a 6%
increase on visitors YOY with over 50,000 attendees. CTT conducted over 70 travel trade
meetings, in addition to 2 media interviews with Breaking Travel News and Lonely Planet.

Trade hosting: CTT supported SAT USA with a trade hosting for the Matador Network from
the 18th - 19th Oct 13. The Matador Network is the largest independent travel publisher on
the internet with 1.9 million unique monthly visitors. Two CTT members sponsored
adventure experiences: White Shark Projects- Shark Cage Diving and Abseil Africa: Abseiling
from Table Mountain. Matador Network - Cape Town Blog. CTT hosted Travel Trade Media
from the Netherlands 26th - 27th of October: Marlous Rekkers - Inspiration Travel.
12
CTT supported with Table Mountain Tickets, City Sightseeing Voucher, as well as a
Township/Cultural Tour with Roots of Africa Tours.

WDC 2014 – Toolkit and Trade Newsletter: To support the launch of WDC 2014, a travel
trade newsletter was distributed on the 12th Dec 13, highlighting WDC content. In addition,
the Toolkit has been updated with relevant WDC content for the trade.
E-Marketing:
Website:

Visits: During Q2 2013 the website received increases in the following areas when compared
to Q2 2012:
o Visitors: 279 160 (+5.30% increase)
o Pageviews: 716 334 (+12.45% increase)
o Average visitor duration: 02:34 (-8.88% decrease)
o Bounce rate: 62.73% (Positive decrease of -6.96%)

Source Markets: Domestic market (SA) online visitors increased by +37.56%, United States
by +16.76%, UK by +20.66% and Australia by +24.61%. This is a good indication of Search
Engines with Google South Africa indexing our site and placing our keywords in their listings.

Top Performing Pages:
1. Homepage - 98 899 Pageviews (+11.76% increase)
2. Events - 10 932 Pageviews (+36.38% increase)
3. Plan your trip - 10 249 Pageviews (+43.17% increase)
4. Maps and Guides - 9 417 Pageviews (+54.51% increase)
5. Attractions - 9 768 Pageviews (+61.60% increase)
13

SEO: As the table below illustrates we have managed to consistently increase our ranking for
across our branded key words and long tail searches. We have divided search terms into
awareness and conversion keywords as this will assist with our future on site conversion
landing pages.
AWARENESS
CONVERSION

Keyword
Cape Town
cape town south africa
Cape Town Tourism
Visit Cape Town
cape town events
Table Mountain
Robben Island
Kirstenbosch
V&A Waterfront
waterfront cape town
table mountain cape town
cape point nature reserve
cape town attractions
cape town guided tours
accommodation in cape town
cape town guest houses
cape town information
trip to cape town
Oct 13
Ranking in
Google
3
3
1
1
2
5
6
4
5
3
5
7
2
13
18
1
1
Nov 13
Ranking
in Google
3
3
1
1
4
3
7
3
4
3
5
6
1
10
15
9
1
1
Dec 2013
Ranking in
Google
1
2
1
1
2
3
4
3
2
3
5
4
1
7
13
9
1
1
Commercial Booking: In December, our previous booking technology was replaced with a
more simplified and user-friendly white label solution from Nights Bridge. The testing phase
will be complete and reports shared at the end of January.
Social Media:

Facebook: The Facebook page's community growth has grown steadily and likes grew by 7
500 new fans in Q2. At the end of December 2013, the total Facebook fans had reached 302
274 (compared to 272 000 in 2012) which has made us the highest ranking destination fan
page in South Africa and the 35th most liked page in South Africa. In Q2 the combined
organic reach totaled 2 651 700 people.

Twitter: In Q2 2013 we gained 17 941 followers and our total is currently sitting at 36 560
with over 5000 mentions and almost 8000 ReTweets. We are engaging with Gold Partners in
order to foster relationships between them and ourselves, in order to cross-pollinate our
channels. Busy days were around New Year and a popular video blogger, Ben Brown who
was interacting with our account.
14

Instagram, Pinterest & YouTube: Are growing slowly however we will be focusing on this in
Q2 and Q3. Stats for the growth of these pages will be provided at the end of Q4.
Blogs:

Content: Over the past quarter, our focus has been on implementing our summer messaging
and highlighting key WDC 2014, Gold Partners, CHAN and City of Cape Town events. While
we seeded this content within our pillars as set out in the content strategy, we have adapted
the execution to include a combination of tactical, republished blogs and curated content. A
secondary focus for this quarter has been to refresh our static content i.e. member,
attraction and activities listings and drawing readers to them via our social media platforms,
therefore scaling back on the amount of blogs we produce. This has led to the publication of
85 blogs from October to December 2013, 27 less than the 112 posts published from
October to December 2012.

Top Blogs: Include V&A Waterfront’s Movies Beneath the Stars (1,633 page views) and New
Year’s Eve Events 2013: What’s On (4,821 page views) which proves that new, topical
content, with a focus on keywords aimed at improving SEO are what our readers are
searching for. These popular articles boosted our blog traffic from 31,125 views in November
2013 to 42,394 views in December 2013.
Hosting:

Total number of hostings for the quarter October-December 2013:
22, with total media pax of 58

Key Activities and Highlights:
1. CTT hosted a Turkish print media delegation of 10 pax in October 2013.
2. CTT hosted freelance journalist Sue Chester, with pitches for the London Observer and
the New York Times in November 2013.
3. CTT hosted a group of high profile print media from the UK as part of a fam trip for Virgin
Atlantic airline, to increase awareness of the route and to profile the destination.
15
Communications:

Media ROI: Our total media ROI for this quarter was R4 984 338.13.
October
2012
R 2 093 414.10
2013
R 717 161.69
YOY
-65.74%
November
December
R 1 633 599.97
R 2 560 548.72
R 1 242 709.64
R 3 024 466.80
-23.93%
18.12%
The decrease in media value year on year can be attributed to CTT decreasing pro-active releases in
order to assist media with reactive media queries over the summer and festive season. Another
reason could be the steady introduction of the new CEO to own the public platform.
Our main pro-active messages over this period were World Travel Market London 2013, Summer
season indicators and barometers. Most of the time and attention were focused on assisting media
with queries on: visitor safety and security due to incidents, season performance and summer events
and activity ideas for visitors.
The People Reached figures are:
October 13
November 13
December 13
Oct – Dec 13
4 263 560
6 382 744
10 501 876
21 148 180

Summer Communications calendar: During this quarter, a new Communications Calendar was
implemented to integrate and streamline all messages throughout Cape Town Tourism. This calendar
is centralised and updated daily to ensure timely and effective communication. This calendar was
shared and distributed to the CoCT team.

Newsletters: Industry, Trade and Team Newsletters were issued in October and December whilst
during November, only an Industry and a Team Newsletter were sent out to the relevant mailing lists.
Please refer to the overview for opening and click-through rates.

Newsflashes: A total of 21 industry newsflashes were issued to industry members and stakeholders
via email over the quarter. The reason for the high amount is due to the AGM communication taking
place in October and Madiba’s passing in December. Over the quarter there was also a total of 13
newsflashes sent via SMS to members and with 5 of these SMS’s alerting members on a daily base to
all the Madiba events taking place.

Passing of Madiba: After the passing of Madiba, CTT compiled and implemented a comprehensive 10
day Communications Plan to support the City with relevant messages to inform our five target
audiences: Members, Trade, Visitors, Media and CTT Staff. Members were informed of events, road
closures and logistics via daily SMS’s and email newsflashes with a summary of events. The Members
Blog Area was also updated daily with the latest press releases and the CEO Blog also communicated
most important info. Our newsflash ‘Let us honour Madiba’ received one of the biggest opening rates
for 2013 with 36%. The CTT Blog as well as Social Media channels (Facebook, Twitter and Instagram)
were utilised to inform visitors of all the commemorative events and sites to visit in memory of
Madiba. A Holding statement by CTT CEO was prepared and sent out to media on request.
16
Projects:

CTT AGM & Annual Report: A total of 490 guests made up of members, stakeholders, media and
staff attended the Annual General Meeting held at the Cape Sun on 10 October 2013. Key
Speaker, Doug Lansky, delivered learnings on the topic of ‘What it takes to create a World-Class
Destination’. A post event survey was distributed to guests whom attended with overall
favourable results. Tsogo Sun was the main sponsor to the event, of which R250 000 sponsorship
was derived. A total of 90 CTT annual reports were delivered to members, media and
stakeholders and uploaded onto www.capetown.travel. The digital version of the Annual Report
was uploaded on the 9th of October and is the first interactive Annual Report Cape Town Tourism
has done, with various innovative additions made to enhance the user experience.

Cape Town Official Visitors Guide 2014: Launched at the AGM in October. Slight changes were
made in December 2013, to the WDC2014 section of the guide, to accommodate any new
revised information. The balance of 150 000 copies will be printed mid-January 2014. Post survey
and copy of the VG2014 distributed to advertisers with overall favourable results. The overall
project rendered good results with advertisers’ confidence increasing and happy with the
aesthetic feel, content and imagery of the guide.
Partnerships:

Gold Partners: Table Mountain, Cape Point, V&A and City Sightseeing. Quarterly reports
distributed and meetings took place with the partners. Overall all the partners are happy with
the roll-out of their agreed benefits totalling an income of R470,000 to CTT.

WDC2014: Quarterly report distributed and meeting held with Cape Town Design NPC. JMA is
centered around the Visitors Guide, hosting, the Toolkit, industry education, and the promotion
of WDC2014 through CTT online channels and Visitor Information Centers. The WDC2014 JMA
with Cape Town Design has proved challenging with the collaboration on media hosting and the
2014 Cape Town Visitors Guide, mainly in terms of providing relevant content timeously and
following standard hosting procedures to ensure alignment with a tourism visitor offering and
production timelines.
Challenges
 E-marketing: With an increase in the number of events on conflicting dates, such as the City of Cape Town
summer events and Madiba memorial events, allocating resources i.e. attendance of writers, blog compiling
and reporting on coverage proved challenging. Finding leads and members to advertise on the website has
been slow however we have structured new rate cards and will be looking at rolling this out in Q3 and Q4.
 Projects: WDC2014 JMA with Cape Town Design has proved challenging with the collaboration on media
hosting and the 2014 Cape Town Visitors Guide, mainly in terms of providing relevant content timeously and
following standard hosting procedures to ensure alignment with a tourism visitor offering and production
timelines.
 Comms: An exceptionally high volume of messages were sent to members during the last quarter due to the
AGM, unplanned strike action in the City and the passing of Madiba. It remains a challenge to make sure
members remain informed, but to not over-communicate to them.
17
The Quarter Ahead
 Events Support: Ongoing. Support to events from January – March 2014, with special emphasis on the
WDC2014 event.

Campaigns: Planning for Winter Campaign 2014 – meeting in JNB with Cullinan Outbound (Thompsons
Holidays) to be held 13th Jan 14.

Trade: CTT attending SA Tourism’s India Road Show 20th – 23rd Jan 14; CTT attending ITB, Germany 5th – 9th
Mar’14; CTT to co-host (alongside SA Tourism) 28 Indian travel agents in CPT 28th Feb + 4th March’14; Trade
newsletter Feb’14.

e-Marketing: Website optimisation in terms of simplifying navigation and splitting visitor and B2B content;
Integrating various white label solutions to bookability: Avis, Travelstart, 2Oceans Aquarium and Cars.com;
Ongoing static content update; Rolling out our new online advertising rate card to members and other leads
in Q3 & Q4; Mobile App RFQ; Implementing the remainder of the summer content plan, assisting with the 20
years of Democracy messaging and seeding WDC 2014, CHAN and Gold Partner content as well as providing
content and social media support to the events team for J&B Met, Cape Town Carnival, Design Indaba, Two
Oceans Marathon, Cape Argus Cycle Tour etc.

Hosting: Ongoing, centered around WDC 2014.

Comms: Continued Summer Messaging focusing on safety, outdoor & family activities, budget options and
events. During February Responsible Tourism will be a main focusing, supporting the City’s projects and
campaigns. A new Comms calendar is to be compiled for the March – May 2014 before the Winter Season
starts. World Design Capital 2014 and the 20 Years of Democracy are positioned as key messages
throughout.

Projects: Planning for Mobile Visitor Vehicle and Visitors Guide 2015.

Partnerships: Ongoing delivery.
18
4. TOURISM SERVICES
A. Visitor Services
Management summary
Visitor numbers for the combined network showed a 10% decrease compared to the same period in 2012. The
entire network (incl accredited VIC’s) received 78 501 visitors during this quarter which is a 27% increase on
previous quarter (Q1 of 2013/2014). The CTT VIC’s contributed 32 873 visitors to the total number of over the
counter interactions. Telephone enquiries for the network showed a decrease of 1% compared to Q2 of 2012
and email enquiries for the network decreased with 10% year on year. Telephone enquiries increased with 45%
compared to the previous quarter. See Annexure A: Visitor services statistics graph 1 & 2 attached.
Bookable enquiries decreased with 17% year on year and increased with 76% compared to the previous quarter
(Q1 of 2013/2014). Conversion of 92% was achieved which resulted in commission to the value of R259 448 for
the quarter. This is R121 550 more commission income than previous quarter and R46 040 more than the same
quarter in 2012. Retail sales shows significant increase of R51 555 compared to previous quarter and is also
more than the sales generated in same quarter in 2012 which amounts to R15 566 more. Self-Generated income
to the value of R533 703 was generated during this quarter, which is 9% below target for the quarter. See
Annexure A: Visitor services statistics graph 2 attached.
SANParks commission paid to CTT for Q2 amounts to R131 450 which is 49% less than the previous quarter and
48% below the target for reporting period.
Service Excellence for Q2 is 88% which means that the 90% target was missed for Q2. In the previous quarter (Q1
of 2013/2014) a 92% was reached and in Q2 of the previous year 89% was reached. See Annexure A: Visitor
services statistics graph 3 attached.
Overall Q2 performed better than Q1 of the 2013/2014 year. This is to be expected as Q2 includes the start of
the traditional high season period. Our commission and retail income performed better in Q2 2013/2014 than in
Q2 2012/2013.
Performance measured against Visitor Services objectives:

Increase self-generated income year on year with 10%
Target set for Visitor Services for 2013/2014 is R2 150 000. To achieve 10% increase year on year we
need to exceed our target by R215 000. Currently the target is lacking behind with 9%.

Decrease operational expenses year on year with 5%
Comparing financial years YTD 2013 to YTD 2014 it currently shows an 8% saving from the previous year
to this year.

Increase foot traffic to the CTT network year on year with 10%
To achieve this target the network need to record 272 000 visitors for the year. At the end of Q2 we
have had 140 082 visitors to the entire network.

Maintain 90% service excellence measured through Mystery Shopper program
At the end of Q2 the 90% average is maintained with a 92% for Q1 and 88% for Q2.
19
Highlights


All of the frontline team received new uniforms in this quarter.
Commission income for the network is looking really good. 17% ahead of target YTD.
Areas of concerns / development

Behind target on self-generated income with 9% for this quarter. The largest contributor to tracking
behind target is the drop in SANP income.
Focus areas for for third quarter of 2013/2014 financial year

Implement the ideas for SANP awareness in collaboration with Marketing.

Working with Marketing to create opportunities to generate income in the quieter months through
winter campaigns and packaging.

Roll out of responsible tourism tips collateral.

Actions of Mobile Vehicle project.

VIC review on upgrading and prioritizing tasks for implementation and actions.
Annexure A: Visitor Services statistics
20
Annexure A: Visitor services statistics graph 1 (Entire network)
Annexure A: Visitor services statistics graph 2 (CTT VIC Network)
Annexure A: Visitor services statistics graph 3 (Mystery Shopper)
21
B. Industry Services
Management Summary
Focus of the three months under review was on both renewal and recruitment. Last efforts to renew
members that did not yet do so as well as capitalising on recruitment before the effect of proforma rates will
have an impact. We saw 73 cancellations and 56 new member recruitments for this quarter which bring the
total membership base to 1 359. This is less than 1% (17 members) in comparison to the total of the
previous quarter. The top 3 reasons for cancellations were businesses closed down, no bookings and nonrenewal (no detailed reason given). See graph 1, Annexure A.
As part of the retention; a big focus was on member engagements through networking, coffee and connect
sessions, retention phone calls, newsletters, newsflashes, business support, etc. These interactions resulted
in 18 820 member communications. The bulk of these are still via emails, newsflashes and newsletters with
9% of interactions being one on one. In the previous quarter 7 002 member communications were
recorded. Although a significant increase in engagement is recorded the focus will be on increasing the one
on one interaction in quarter 3 and 4.
Income is 10% ahead of target for quarter 2 and 1% (R24 800) ahead of target YTD. Quarter 3 and 4 will
focus on maintenance and recruitment. The team managed to increase income by 21% in comparison to the
same quarter 2012 and 2% more than YTD 2012. See graph 2, Annexure A.
8 Complaints against members were recorded during this quarter. All were resolved.
Highlights

Income target for the quarter and YTD exceeded

isiXhosa training concluded
Lowlights / Risks

Higher than expected cancellation after 90 days reminder. Final communication on cancellation was
sent out early in January 2014. Expecting some of these to reinstate membership and will do full report
on this at end of January 2014.

Drop in number of Emerging Entrepreneur (EE) members. This is mainly a drop off in year 3 as by then
EE members are paying full membership (discounted in year 1 and 2). This will be addressed in the
proposed new membership model.
Planned actions for next Quarter

Workshop and submit draft membership strategy and proposed new membership model.
•
Recruitment to stay on track with targets.
•
Benefit delivery.

Increase participation by accommodation members in the Howarth Survey.
22
Annexure A
Reasons for cancelations: Q2 2013
29
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
7
4
13
11
9
Graph 1: Reasons for cancelations: Q2 2013
Year on year income comparison
1758867
1800000
1600000
1400000
1200000
1000000
800000
600000
400000
200000
0
629472
Actual
569000
Target
Q2 2013
569000
519751
Actual
1720174
Target
Q2 2012
YTD 2013 YTD2012
Graph 2: Income comparison
23
5. eBUSINESS SERVICES
Overview
The last thirty days we have been pushing to get some of the existing projects completed in line with the
staff leave period starting and ran into some challenges which means that some of the projects will be going
into the New Year. The past quarter has not been as challenging as previous periods and this can be seen in
the fact we were able to achieve of an uptime of above 99% for the 90 day period as shown in the uptime
report Graph 1: Quarter vs Quarter Uptime and also the past quarter has been less challenging than others
with fewer incidents being logged as shown in Graph 3: Quarter vs Quarter closing ratio. There will be a push
over the next six months to get VMMS handed over to the internal staff to support with the end of the
support contracts and the ending of support for those products ending. Our MPLS network should be
completed during the next quarter and the user experience that we have been promising then becoming a
reality and the anticipated savings also starting to show in the budget.
Highlights:

As part of the final move over to the MPLS network the team has managed to complete the Firewall
configuration that allows the required offices to reach the SANPARKS network even over a notebook
client using 3G which is a first for the entire SANPARKS network.

We saw an average uptime of 99.60% and even had some servers available for 100% of the time over the
last 90 days as shown in the uptime report Graph 1: Year vs Year Uptime.

We placed the order and distributed the first batch of the replacement hardware devices as part of a
hardware refresh that was approved as part of the CAPEX requirements for the financial year 2013 –
2014.

We undertook a staff move, which was the first major one at Head Office, during the past quarter with
staff being move from three separate areas with all staff moved and able to perform their daily tasks
within two hours which was quicker than expected.

Renewal process which included initial renewal mailer as well as reminders was delivered without any
major issues during the quarter.

Even though we’ve had many support challenges we are still able to report a 45% increase in
engagements on the touch screens which is shown in the Graph 2: Year vs Year Touchscreen
engagements which ties back into the improved uptime of the units versus the 2012 period.

Creation of the first draft during the past quarter of the VMMS FAQ’s that will be used as a self-help
function for users and alleviate the need for support incidents to be logged and also help in increasing
the users understanding of the applications.

eBusiness has completed a skills transfer session with PR & Communications staff on how to utilise the
electronic communications platforms when sending out bulk communications which will be especially
useful when communicating disasters or after hours incidents.
24

The eBusiness team attended the ITIL Foundation training which is the global leader in service
management frameworks and will assist in allowing us to develop a service management plan for CTT.

The newly implemented backup and restore solution is finally working the way it should with three
weeks of setup and fine-tuning delivering the desired results.

We have managed to move a large amount of files on the fileserver and organised the drives to work
more optimally. All old data prior to 1 January 2011 and has now been stored on one of the external
drives however the user will not notice anything different in the experience when accessing the files as
we have pointed the old drive to the new location and managed to free almost 50GB in space.
Lowlights:

We had some challenges in implementing the new backup, recovery and restore solution and will be
meeting with the supplier within the next few days to agree on a project plan and towards the end of
December with good results being shown.

There is no server side control in mail archiving and some of the user mailboxes have grown substantially
and we will be going through an exercise within the first two weeks of the new period to do manual
archiving to ensure that we keep a minimum of 100GB space available on the mail servers. A new
solution has been implemented and now only needs to be implemented on the user side to ensure that
the information store in managed proactively.

We have started a process of handing over the VMMS applications due to the fact there is no roadmap
for these applications and even though there are risks on skills available we are finalising a plan to
ensure that there are no operational impact.

One-way speech still being a problem with regards to the Reception number, this is still in progress with
Internet Solution and Dimension Data as the current change has not resolved the fault. This issue will be
escalated now for a second level engineer to get the necessary attention to find a permanent solution.

Support from Innervation stills remains a major challenge and affected the member registration process
and this is delaying the member’s listing from appearing on the website and the resource that can
resolve this is only back at the office from the sixth of January.

In previous reports I shared the delay that was being experienced with finalising the final leg of the
connectivity on the MPLS network with the delay from the approval that was required from the CoCT for
Telkom to proceed with the digging up of the pavement outside of the building and we have now
received all the approval and handed it over to the building management and the date for excavation
has been confirmed for 13 January 2014.
25
New quarter activities:

The first phase of the Frequently Asked Question (Help) for VMMS proposals to be presented as part of
the self-help solution that we are busy implementing.

Upgrade of Syspro to the latest release version after the recent announcement and the focus is now to
prepare all systems for the upgrade to version Syspro 7.

We will have a greater focus on the Nightsbridge Booking process which should drive revenue and also
get the Industry Services team involved to increase the uptake of members on the booking platform.

Report writing using the SQL reporting interface and tools for Industry Services to replace their local lists
and monthly reporting.

We will start the testing of the next solution for the voice with calls between the branches to drive cost
down with dedicated tunnel over the MPLS network.

We will be finalising and setting up the wireless public access at all the VIC’s to be completed by the end
of January in line with the request from the CEO’s office and also in supporting the change in payment
taking devices being introduced by SANParks.
City of Cape Town SLA requirements
We have replaced the x1 (one) desktop that was reported missing in the last reporting period and have received
confirmation that this asset has been added to their list now.
26
Annexures: Tables and Graphs
December 2013 vs December 2012 Qtr
100.00
75.00
50.00
25.00
0.00
December 2013 Qtr
December 2012 Qtr
December 2013
Quarter
December 2012
Quarter
BBBES
99.90
0
Backup
99.87
99.27
Data01
99.90
99.28
Data02
99.88
99.41
Excas01
99.93
99.48
Excas02
99.96
99.39
Exht03
94.13
90.78
Exmb01
99.95
99.38
Exmd02
99.90
99.38
Fileserver
99.93
99.69
Hyperv01
99.99
99.45
Hyperv02
99.98
99.45
DC
99.96
99.4
DC2
99.85
99.35
VMMS
99.84
99.34
WSUS
99.72
99.38
Hyperv03
99.97
99.45
Spiceworks
99.87
99.46
TSGateway
99.92
99.38
99.60
98.93
Server
Quarter Average
Graph 1: Year vs Year Uptime
27
December 2013 vs December 2012
40000
35000
30000
25000
20000
15000
10000
5000
0
December 2013 Quarter
December 2012 Quarter
Location
December 2013
Quarter
December 2012
Quarter
Change
CT Airport Right Kiosk
25251
16189
36%
CT Airport Left Kiosk
37998
14896
61%
CT Airport Baggage
4992
2547
49%
CT International
Arrivals
8986
3246
64%
Engen N1 North Kiosk
3390
2390
29%
Cape Town Station
3955
4779
21%
Burg Street
0
848
Engen N1 North Kiosk
0
1477
84572
46372
Totals
45%
Graph 2: Year vs Year Touchscreen engagements
28
December 2013 vs December 2012 Qtr
500
450
400
350
300
250
200
150
100
50
0
December 2013 Qtr
December 2012 Qtr
333
429
Logged
Closed
283
360
Closing Ratio
85%
84%
Description
December 2013 Qtr
December 2012 Qtr
Variance
Logged
333
429
-22%
Closed
283
360
21%
Closing Ratio
85%
84%
1%
Graph 3: Year vs Year Closing Ratio
29