SOUTH African Tourism has announced great feedback following this year’s ITB held in Berlin just over a week ago. SAT grabbed third prize out of 94 entries in the cinema advertising spot category for the “Numbers” advertisement at The Golden Gate Awards. These awards recognise outstanding international destination film advertising campaigns.

“Both FIFA and the Local Organising Committee participated at ITB to further support, endorse and invigorate the German market to visit South Africa before, during and after the World Cup,” said SAT in a statement released yesterday. “Key issues around 2010 including readiness, infrastructure and sustainability were addressed during the show giving confidence to the German market that South Africa was wholly ready to host the event.”

During ITB South African Tourism launched its “Voices” Campaign in Germany, which sees fans of South Africa being asked for their positive experiences of the country. By 2010 the campaign aims to have over a million Germans talking positively about South Africa.

Says Roshene Singh, Chief Marketing Officer at South African Tourism: “ITB was a great triumph for South African Tourism. 2010 featured high on the agenda and the interest in and enthusiasm for the country was fantastic.”

Furthering Singh’s sentiment was Sindiswa Nhlumayo, Deputy Director General Tourism Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism. Present at the show, she noted that the response to SAT’s soccer stand had been very positive but believed they should not have been in two separate halls.

She said: “We have a captive audience here and we should be capitalising on this experience. We are creating a marketing platform and we should have had one branded stand.”

Source: TravelHub www.travelhub.co.za