Social Media Pushes Tourism In Capetown

Here's a great example of a local area using social media to draw tourism to an area. 

In this example contestants were to post a photo of them in this location to be in the draw for a great prize. 

In this blog report they revealed the success of a recent competition in South Africa's Capetown to bring visitors to the city.  The competition was open through December 31st, 2012, and winners were revealed on January 25, 2013.  Potential travelers had serious motivation to participate, with prizes including:

• first prize — an all-expenses-paid trip to Cape Town
• second prize — a week long holiday for a domestic traveller
• third prize — long haul flights on Virgin Atlantic Airways

Throughout the course of the campaign, the Facebook game was played by 8,212 people. Participants hailed from South Africa, the UK, USA, India and Germany (in order by number of participants).

According to the report " The campaign demonstrated “the incredible power of sharing on social media,” said Mariëtte du Toit-Helmbold, CEO of Cape Town Tourism.  She sees gaming as a “creative playspace for a brand” and notes that many major tourism destinations are now incorporating gamification into their marketing strategy.  The move into this space was very deliberate: du Toit-Helmbold adds, “We researched this field extensively before embarking on our campaign and we have learnt a lot in the process.” "

So what could we be doing to use social media most effectively to draw attention and bring new people to the Newcastle and Hunter Valley and share their travel stories? 

We have so many great attractions. Here are just some that I have pinned on to Pinterest. What's your favourite spot to share? Or maybe you have tried a competition like this? We'd love your feedback on how that went.