PLETTENBERG BAY NEWS - Plettenberg Bay is on its way to becoming synonymous with adventure following a successful World Travel Market Africa 2019 launch in Cape Town of the the Plett High Five Adventure Week.
The adventure week, scheduled to take place in September this year, is set to showcase the town as an adventure destination.
Plett Tourism spokesperson Patty Butterworth said the area is home to more than 40 adventure activities from canyoning, abseiling, zip-lining, scuba and sky diving to swimming with seals, quad biking, blackwater tubing and base camp for leaping off the world's highest bungy bridge.
Not only for adrenaline junkies
She said that while there are substantial options for adrenaline junkies, Plett also offers visitors a chance to throttle down with a variety of other activities to balance out the thrill. These include horse and hiking trails, stand-up paddling (SUP), kayaking, surfing, deep-sea angling, marine safaris and animal sanctuaries.
Plett Tourism took this product to the World Travel Market Africa in April and according to Butterworth it was a resounding success. After returning from Cape Town, the tourism body hosted several tour operators and tourism bloggers from around the world to showcase these activities to international visitors.
"WTM Africa is a fantastic platform to launch new products, to meet travel professionals and to experience the South African travel industry. With a vibrant, culturally diverse audience of tourism professionals, our four representatives increased brand exposure, generated new sales leads, strengthened existing relationships and closed new business," Butterworth said.
Audience estimate of 5 880
This year's event had an audience estimate of 5 880 travel professionals and 724 exhibitors. The audience included a mix of hosted buyers, media and invited travel trade visitors. Hosted buyers and travel professionals were from 55 different countries.
"Plett Tourism representatives interacted with more than 90 tour operators and 12 media representatives and influencers. In addition to our representation on the floor, representatives also attended several municipal and government travel trade seminars, workshops and presentations."
Butterworth said they are currently involved with the organisation of educational trips with select operators, and are busy putting together unique itineraries. "All travel trade contacts will be added to the Plett Tourism quarterly Business Briefs travel trade newsletter and we will continue to engage with the new media contacts."
She added that the information gained at the event was invaluable. "Adventure tourism is on the rise. It is therefore something to consider and aggressively market in 2019." She further said that statistics suggest that regions with more attractions tend to attract visitors for longer. "Although the Western Cape received only the third-highest number of international visitors, compared to other provinces, visitors stay on average 14 days and spend almost double that of other provinces, according to the tourism annual report."
'We bring you the latest Plettenberg Bay, Garden Route news'
