Round Table Southern Africa
Tourism (media)
There will be different media campaigns that we will embark on after the Grocery Support platform has been completed.
We just want to point out how media aimed at the tourism industry will help grow our economy. The first media will only be related to the Grocery structures. Most of the accommodation facilities will be reached via the tourism board, and we will also reach business owners in partnership with our property network and with the support of financial advisors strategically positioned. (More detail later)
There are 3 platforms that we just want to explain in short.
The first has been covered. It is the Grocery Support platform, which will be hosted on the www.xtragroceries.co.za domain.
The second is the Accommodation booking platform which will be hosted on the www.enjoysouthernafrica.co.za domain. This website will be published within 6 months. We will approach all the accommodation companies nationally to prepare for the launch. We will approach them after the test of the Grocery Support software has been completed. It is the first phase of helping business owners in the tourism industry. We know that business owners will join in. Our research revealed lots of interest, especially because business owners can see that we have an exceptional plan to increase tourism from abroad. This booking site will be well advertised on the internet, even f we need to spend large amounts on Google Ad words.
The third is the Enjoy Life phone app. This is an advanced tool that we develop. The Enjoy Life phone app will be used by South Africans and by foreigners for the period that they are in our country.
There is lots of detail available about this app. Readers that want to investigate more can read about the app on the Child Protection Services link. The password = ChildCareOne
In short, the Enjoy Life app will be the app that offer the lowest prices on restaurant and fast-food meals in our country. We will re-invest up to R8.5 million per month, to subsidize restaurant specials even further. Romans Pizza might for example offer 2 large pizzas for R99 on their special. We will push this special to phone users for R50 and we will pay the franchisee the shortfall out of our budget.
The phone app will also provide unique services… such as Bucket List software. It is actually worth reading if readers have time on hand.
The Enjoy Life phone app is part of the tools to grow our economy. One of the features is that when people in the hospitality industry ask foreigner guests to download the App, that the app will change the interface to support foreigners. The first setting that the app will ask a user is to indicate the country in which the person resides.
We can now use technology to help the tourism industry. If the phone user list any other country than South Africa, then we will know that the app is being installed by a tourist. *There is also processes in place to ensure that the person is actually in South Africa when the app is installed.
South Africa will be the only country where members of our Government can welcome a tourist. (Remember that we first develop the technology before we will inform the Government about our solution to help them.)
We first need to complete the final development and testing of the Grocery Support platform. We will later engage with a larger number of Hospitality companies. We should be in a position to talk to Minister Derek Hannekom (Minister of Tourism) by April 2019. (This is when we reveal our support plan to the Government)
We believe that it will be possible to arrange that President Cyril Ramaphosa would be the person welcoming foreigners to our country.
Derek Hannekom should be able to convince Cyril Ramaphosa to support the project (Considering that the tourism industry is willing to help the poor and the police etcetera).
It will also have a long-term effect on foreigners if they are greeted by the head of state. We need these people to re-visit South Africa and also to invite/entice their countrymen to visit South Africa at least once in their lives.
Phone technology can be the solution.
It is not possible to use a website for this purpose. The Enjoy Life app use Google tracking technology to determine if the person is in South Africa. We also need to know what time of the day the app is being installed so that the welcome message could be effective. We will for example have 3 video clips in our database. One would be where Cyril start the welcome message with Good Morning…. The second with Good Afternoon.
A welcome video clip can also broadcast important information that we need to convey to foreigners. We will later publish a full script that we will need either Cyril or Derek Hannekom to post. The message in short will be that the Minister would inform the tourist that the Enjoy Life app is a proudly South African product, which all the companies in the tourism industry in Southern Africa use to provide services to our guests.
He will explain that we will appreciate it if the tourist can please notify the business owners of the companies they visit, should they experience bad service during their holiday. We need honest feedback so that the people involved (business owners & management) can rectify any problems guests to our country experienced. We are a proud nation who value our tourists enormously. South Africa would like to become the most recommended tourism destination, and honest feedback can help the country to reach our goal.
This message will be published in English. A video clip is as personal as we can get. We can use the technology to post a written message after the video clip ended in the preferred language of the tourist.
Video clip on behalf of Ambassador of home country
The next video clip that will play is a video clip in the language of the tourist. We will arrange that representatives of the different embassies will welcome guests from their countries (Our example is of the Chinese Ambassador in South Africa). They will then explain to the guests in their home language that the Enjoy Life app will help the tourists with exceptional restaurant deals, and furthermore help them with safety functions while these people visit our country.
The video clip will also explain to the guests that there is a team who will negotiate special deals for tourists which they can win when they use the Enjoy Life app during the holiday.
Media gained via competition
The competitions that we will manage also use brilliant-planned technology. The tourist will be asked to post pictures taken into social media via the Enjoy Life app. If they post pictures via the app, we can give them entries into the holiday competitions. Our technology can determine how many Facebook or Myspace friends are linked to the tourist’s Facebook profile. The tourist receives one entry per Facebook friend.
The Enjoy Life app will imbed the website address in the posting. (Website address of the company the person visits while they tour in our country.) Facebook or Myspace can then advertise the Guesthouse or lodge to friends of the tourist abroad when these people view the holiday photos. It will help our South African holiday companies if we can push links of their businesses into social media, with recommendation messages from the clients who were at their businesses.
Homecare will invest 2% of our turn-over (+ R3 million per month) into projects aimed at foreigners. We believe that Government will also contribute towards gifts that we can provide to foreigners. Homecare team will later provide more detail regarding our foreigner campaigns.
Media about services provided by companies supporting tourism
The Enjoy Life app will also push messages to foreigners and South Africans about our tourism industry, and it will only do this if the service is available. We can monitor with the technology if the personnel of the company are on the premises. The Canopy Tour company for example will only push a message to a guest if the staff is there for the service.
Tripadvisor is a global product. They do not develop technology that integrate with staff of companies. We also need companies to be able to advertise specials without asking them any media costs. They might have a special for a day, and this message must be broadcast-ed to help the supporting companies.
Tourism is a broad-spectrum industry. Guesthouses, Game farms etcetera relies on effective support from other companies surrounding them to help make a holiday a memorable event.
Communication after guest returned to their home countries.
South Africa will most likely be the only country that will go the extra mile to ensure that guests return for more visits.
We will grow our economy if we can only entice 10% of our guests to return for a second visit. We will provide a unique service to our Government aimed at growing our economy.
We will be able to convince guests while they are in our country to provide us their date of birth. The Ambassador of their country will explain that if they list the date, that we can search for specials offered by adventure companies in our country that cater for different age categories. We will also explain that restaurants will offer special deals if they visit our country during the month of their birthdays.
This will enable us to push Birthday wishes to the person’s phone, even if they are back n their own countries. It will be an ongoing service long after the guest left our country.
We ca also use the Enjoy Life app to implement action plans to lure the guests for second visits. Our country host different holiday options based on our geographical landscape. The foreigner might have visited the Drakensburg region in Natal. The app will save the locations where the guest was on holiday. We mentioned the LSM Profile builder as one of the different software platforms we develop. Without going into too much detail, we just want to explain some of these functions in short.
The Enjoy Life app and geographical tracking will help us to gather a lot of information about the tourist while he/she spends his/her holiday. We can for example track how long the person is in the country. We can furthermore calculate an LSM profile based on the companies he/she visits during the holiday. If we notice that the person only visits expensive restaurants and guesthouses, then we will increase the LSM scoring. This will help us with future strategies.
The first thing that we want to do, is to rank people based on their profiles and the time they have spent in our country. People that spent longer periods are mote important. It is better for our economy.
The software will for example allow such a person 3 years before we start with specific campaigns to lure the guest for a second visit. (We first need to see if the person does not book a second trip on his/her own.) The birthday and holiday season communications will remind the guest about South Africa.
We will then six months before his/her birthday start with unique invitation strategies. It might be that Minister Derek Hannekom invite the guest for a holiday on his/her birthday.
The software will for example negotiate with accommodation companies in Stellenbosch, Western Cape to join the unique campaign. We will select companies based on the reports we build up about their guests’ willingness to donate funds that we share amongst staff. (More detail to follow)
We will ask guesthouse owners to offer a special rate, and the Homecare fund will also contribute a percentage of the gust’s accommodation costs. (We will ask Government for a contribution to help lure specific guests back to our country)
Minister Derek Hannekom will then send an invitation to the guest we target, explaining to the guest that we value the person and we negotiated a special deal to enable the person to spend his/her birthday in our Western Cape province…. (Everything will be manged by software…. A service none of the opposition countries offer!)
Donations we ask foreigners
Well-planned technology can make a huge difference. The Enjoy Life app integrates with the Enjoy Southern Africa booking system. We will be able to determine exactly when the guest is due to leave a specific hotel/guesthouse.
We can plan that the Enjoy Life app push a video clip posted by the Ambassador of his/her country a day before departure. This message will explain to the guest that the Enjoy Life app and all the staff working at the guest house work on projects to help fund bedridden patients and child protection services. We will also explain that if the guest thought about a possibility to tip the staff (only if they provided exceptional service) that the tip can be given to management and that the tip will be shared with all the staff and with the Homecare Foundation to help bedridden patients.
The image we want to portray is that it is exceptional people who work in the guesthouse. It is people who care for their community. This will actually entice the guest to make donations. We also plan that such a message will only be posted is the guest interacted with other companies in the geographical area as well. We can determine if the guest posted photos, we can review the feedback he/she gave to other businesses. We will only such a message if the software determine that the guest enjoyed his/her holiday.
We will furthermore explain that the Homecare team share order food vouchers for the staff, and that we receive an additional 5% from food companies to help staff and patients.
This process will ensure that foreigners help our staff working at hospitality companies. This will also contribute to staff focussing on exceptional service. Staff will know that technology support them to entice guests for donations. It is a difficult thing for staff to ask for tips. We package it better with technology and we plan it effectively. Everybody will gain when foreigners make small donations for a great cause. Remember that it will not be compulsory!