First travel festival for Mossel Bay

01 Feb 2016 | Admin Author

Mossel Bay Tourism has called for expressions of interest from attractions, accommodation providers, tour operators, and others who might like to take part in the town's first annual travel festival.

The Festival will take place from the 18th to the 20th of October. It's been designed to attract both on-line and real world audiences, and it will aim to build awareness of the town as a destination while at the same time exploring the pleasures and experiences of being in Mossel Bay.

"We've been marketing Mossel Bay as the 'Do stuff destination' for some time now, and this Festival will serve to showcase what this means," said Mossel Bay Tourism's Marcia Holm.
She said that the each of the three days of the Festival will explore the region from a different perspective.
"On Day One we'll talk about our culture, our people, and our environment, and about the issues that affect tourism to the Southern Cape; on Day Two we'll exhibit our tourism products; and on Day Three we'll actually visit some of the attractions that make Mossel Bay unique."

The idea for the Mossel Bay Travel Festival came from an examination of the New York Travel Festival, and Mossel Bay Tourism has agreed to officially affiliate its Festival to that event.
"This will give us access to their social web platforms, and that's publicity that you almost cannot buy," said Ms. Holm.
"In addition, we're working to bring the originator and organiser of the New York Travel Festival, Roni Weiss, to the Western Cape Province, and to host him in Mossel Bay - and we're hoping that he'll deliver a keynote address while he's here.

"Also, the Western Cape's MEC for Economic Development and Tourism, Alan Winde, will hold his bi-annual Tourism Plenary in Mossel Bay on the 18th of October, and this will mean that the senior officials from all of the Province's destination marketing organisations will be in Mossel Bay at that time - and this is why we've chosen those particular dates," said Ms. Holm.

Mossel Bay Tourism will live stream the Tourism Plenary - a first for an event of this kind. "And we're arranging with venues in Cape Town and Knysna to project the event on their big screens so that members of their local tourism industries can get together for networking events, and to watch the speeches, which are always interesting and pertinent to the issues we regularly have to confront in in tourism today," said Ms. Holm.
The following expressions of interest are invited:

DAY ONE: Presentations
Speakers who are willing to deliver interesting and exciting lectures of 30 to 40 minutes on topics related to tourism attractions in the Southern Cape. These presentations will be delivered live on line, and can be delivered from remote locations. Appearance fees will not be paid.

DAY TWO: Exhibitions (a small fee will be charged for exhibiting; rates will be advertised during June)
(a) Accommodation providers, attractions, activities, and destination marketing organisations situated within about 200 km of Mossel Bay are invited to apply for indoor exhibition space. Each exhibitor will be allocated a table and chairs from which to work, and will also be allowed to display a maximum of two pull-up banners.
(b) Vehicle sales, tent manufacturers, and other businesses which may wish to erect displays out-of-doors.

DAY THREE: Visits
a) Tour operators and attractions that are willing to offer discounts for the day ('standard' tours only - no products designed specifically for the event.)
b) Private collectors and hobbyists who may be willing to open their homes as 'Voorkamer Museums' for the day, and to display their collections of historic, cultural, sporting, or natural artifacts to visitors.

GENERAL: Sponsors
Naming rights sponsors and 'zone' sponsors (who might be willing to inject cash donations towards the cost of setting up exhibition areas or zones for attractions, accommodation, golf, etc.).

GENERAL: Volunteers
"Everything we do will be tweeted and shared on Facebook, and most of what's happening will be live streamed or broadcast via Google+ Hangouts, videoed for YouTube, and tagged with the words 'Mossel Bay' and 'Mosselbaai'," said Ms. Holm. "But we're planning this as a crowd sourcing event, and we're working on a shoestring budget - so we're looking for people who may be prepared to donate their time on line because they understand that putting Mossel Bay on the web will ultimately benefit all of us who live, work, and visit here."

CONTACT
To get involved, please contact Marcia Holm via manager@visitmosselbay.co.za or 044 691 2202; or Martin Hatchuel on martinhatchuel1@gmail.com or 084 951 0574.