Cape Town Facebook page hits 100 000 fans after World Cup success

I ♥ Cape Town, the official Facebook fan page of Cape Town Tourism, is celebrating a milestone after hitting the 100 000 fans mark in just one year. The page proved to be a powerful tool to convert visitors here for the World Cup into “Cape Town Fans” during the 2010 FIFA World Cup™.

Almost half of the fan page’s new followers signed on in the last three months; the page grew by 40 000 fans between May and July 2010. It was up by an impressive 28 000 fans during the month-long tournament and it added a further 12 000 fans since the end of the FIFA World Cup™ in mid-July.

With the use of social platforms such as Facebook and Twitter, as well as YouTube, Flickr, Beenthere.tv and RSS Feeds, Cape Town Tourism is constantly engaging with people who love the Mother City by keeping them up to date with the latest Cape Town news, views, specials and more.

“It is well documented that the tourism and travel playing fields are rapidly shifting to online,” says Cape Town Tourism CEO, Mariette du-Toit Helmbold; “It’s the fastest, most direct way to gather information, search for the best deals, book trips, and read about other people’s travel experiences on citizen journalist sites such as TripAdvisor.com”.

A 2009 World Travel Trends Report found that journeys being booked online are rising by about 15% per year. The number of people gathering information about holiday trips online is also rising, and traditional travel agencies continue to lose clientele in favour of online intermediaries.