From Social Media Stars to Springboks
This year’s E-Tourism Africa Summit will host an array of new and exciting international speakers, as well as leading online global brands such as Facebook, Google and Trip Advisor. Speaking for the first time in South Africa, ZapTravel, Tourwrist and Triposo, will present on how they are changing the online landscape for travel with new technologies and new ways of researching travel. There will also be a special presentation on South Africa’s Instagram community looking at how a photo sharing app has become an important marketing tool.
Also at the summit this year former Springbok, broadcaster and entrepreneur Bob Skinstad will be sharing his passion for travel and social media. To open the summit this year, we will have the Minister of Tourism for South Africa – Marthinus van Schalkwyk.
Damian Cook, the CEO of E-Tourism Frontiers said new trends are emerging online. “It’s exciting to see how the online travel world is evolving and where the new trends are emerging. ZapTravel, one of our presenters and recently named one of the “Best New Travel Start Ups” by Mashable, is reinventing the travel booking game. It focuses on experiences rather then destinations and it gives customers the option of looking at what they would rather do, then where they want to go”.
Cook went on to say, “The online travel world is undergoing great disruption, social media and mobile are no longer just hype, but hugely important platforms for research, sharing and booking. We are also seeing long established social platforms such as Trip Advisor growing rapidly. Sixty new reviews per minute are listed on Trip Advisor and over 10% of US hotel online bookings are now driven by the site. The online travel world is evolving continuously and it’s vital that our tourism sector keep pace with the changes”.
Other new features at this years summit will include the judging of the Africa App Quest – a continent wide search, sponsored by South African Tourism and Visa for Africa’s Best Travel App. The three finalists of the competition will present their apps on the final day of the summit and the audience will make their decision for the winning app, with a US $10,000 prize for the winner.
Also to be launched for the first time at this year’s summit will be the Digital Travel Marketing Academy, a brand new initiative by South African Tourism that will give a huge knowledge and information boost to the travel trade sector, through a online learning programme, specially crafted for the South African market.
Full details and registration can be found here.
