Last month I went to a couple of book stores to look for Johannesburg's tourism book and believ you me I found only 1 book and it was a small book with no pics. The amazing thing is that there were plenty of CT books in Johannesburg Bookshops, may be I'm crazy but I don't think Johannesburg Tourism Company is doing what it is supposed to do.

Why do they continue with Projects like constitution hill while they don't tell people about them. I think its time for Johannesburg Tourism Company to go advertise the City in Cape Town, Paris, London and so forth.

Was the same problem as Durban had.

We now have a great new book on the city called "Durban - A paradise and its people", which was commisioned by the city.

The reason their are so many Cape Town books is that publishers bluntly refuse books on other destinations. As such Exclusive books, cna and the like have little choice and hence always have dozens of different CT books.

Until the publishers change their ways, or new ones come about, the same problems will persist. Hence why the Durban city created its own. Joburg needs to do the same.

Oh and the Durban one is actually great. Very chic in design. Its available at Exclusive books, Adams and Zulu tourism offices (at Sandton city in joburg and V&A waterfront in cape town in addition to the one's in Durban)

oh and pule, i have no idea what your thread title is meant to say! please inform so i can change it

That's good Mike, I hope we here in Jozi do the same and again our cities need to be advertised more so that tourists don't come to SA for CT only. The worst thing is that some pass through O.R Tambo and thet don't even spend 3 hours in Jozi unless their flights are delayed.


Please correct my spelling on the name of the thread, I meant to say "Why do other cities don't attract must tourists as CT"

oh and pule, i have no idea what your thread title is meant to say! please inform so i can change it

LOL, I guess my fingers are faster than my brains.

The advertising problem belongs to SA tourism. They always only advertise Kruger and Cape Town. Their belief is that what people know, so play on it. To me its the wrong philosophy as destinations need to remain fresh to be competitive, as such SA tourism needs to constantly alter its advertising content while maintaining the same core message.

Due to the bias to kruger and CT; KZN tourism, fehasa kzn and other organisations have stopped their funding of SA tourism and are pumping all their money into the Zulu Kingdom brand to push KZN, for they felt they were getting a raw deal paying SA tourism while only helping further prop up Cape town.

Joburg has quite a few coffee table books out there, and there is a very good guide book out there called 'Chic Jozi' by the editors of Elle Magazine. Unfortunately this is the only guide book about Joburg, and it's now kind of outdated. Boo. I haven't seen many guidebooks for Durbs, which really is a great pity.

On the other hand, Cape Town has a HUGE array of books available, including the Time Out travel guide, which comes in magazine form every year for many different cities. Joburg even came out one year - it had a fantastic cover shot of the Nelson Mandela Bridge.

The reason why Cape Town attracts so many tourists and by implication the guide books is quite simple really.. it's a tourist friendly city. Durbs and Joburg can't claim to nearly be as tourist friendly as Cape Town is. Cape Town is literally delivered on a silver platter to tourists, and they lap it up.

I think Durban will soon be on a par with Cape Town with regards to international tourists, especially with KSIA coming on board, as well as the Point and Umhlanga too. It (and the rest of KZN) certainly has SUCH a lot to offer.

Joburg will always be the business hub of SA, and I think the city has and will continue to be caught up in it's own frenetic economic development to worry too much about being a tourism hub. But I agree with you Pule that the Joburg tourism company can do a lot more to promote the city, even if it's to ensure that people stay for a little bit in Joburg before moving on.

There is a book commissioned by the Johannesburg Development Agency (JDA) which is about the revitalisation of the inner city and highlights new developments. They will commission a second version after they did the first, a 400-page book in 2006.

The reason why Cape Town has so many books about it is because it is the top destination in the country and scenery that cannot be matched such as Table Mountain. Not that the other cities do not have anything to offer. Quite the contrary but the problem is they do not have a Table Mountain nor the historical sites that the Mother City has. In addition only Cape Town features in the T&L and Conde Nast rankings of world cities.

each city needs to find out what its good at and market it aggressively. said that a thousand times. table mountain does help and most of us are sick of the traditional table mountain images but we make the very poor assumption that the rest of the world knows about it.

many still ask.."is that mountain really that flat?"

if durban is to go sports capital then it needs to prove it by hosting the major parts of sports events even if it has to pay for them. or if it decides to go "tropical south africa" then it needs to market that aggressively and provide a touristy environment to match that. or will it go "african city - zulu kingdom"..ive seen some books with the zulu kingdom title..but what does that do for durban? it needs to decide on one an run with it, that doesn't mean that it has to stop hosting major sports events and not be proud of its heritage and culture. personally it should choose the "tropical" option but that is of course easier said than done.

cape town is far from the be all and know all from a tourism perspective but has certainly made strides over the last ten years from an unknown IOC applicant city to a top ten tourist destination.

There is a book commissioned by the Johannesburg Development Agency (JDA) which is about the revitalisation of the inner city and highlights new developments. They will commission a second version after they did the first, a 400-page book in 2006.


Thanks guys for your responds, Mosi where can I get the book?

I full agree with you Mosi, I think all cities need to target one specific thing and make sure that it does it to its best.

Land marks like the following, Eiffel Tower, play a major role in terms of tourism and and Joburg and Durbs do not have the Cape Points and Table mountains of Cape Town.

http://i.pbase.com/u39/diasdosreis/upload/15737801.FOTOTECA044.jpg

The likes of Freedom Statue that is coming to PE is gonna play the same part as all these, I think Jozi and Durban need to look at all these as part of tourism attraction. I hope that the Shaka Statue will have the same effect.

I always look at Top Star, where the drive in was located in Jozi, I think that's the best site for Joburg's Land mark.

I've said many times, I think Johannesburg needs to concentrate on its skyline to market itself. Cities like Chicago, Frankfurt, Shanghai and Hong Kong all have iconic skylines that market the cities in themselves. Joburg pushing itself as the financial capital of Africa, they need to do this by keep upgrading the CBD, making it safer and more attractive to investors. I think it's about time to start building some iconic new buildings in Joburg, not just in Sandton. Cape Town needs the mountain and the ocean, Durban can have the palms and the warm water, Johannesburg needs an impressive cityscape!

Thanks guys for your responds, Mosi where can I get the book?

I saw the info on the JDA website which is the one with Citi Chat commentator Neil Fraser.

Pule, it will probable change with the time as the city gains a better reputation... I remember reading a few years ago (maybe more than few, maybe even 10) in a newspaper an article about South Africa, and since direct flights from Spain only land in O.R Tambo (Joburg), the journalist advised the readers, to, literally "do not go out of the airport or if possible don't even walk out of the plane", and then continue to Cape Town.

You know Joburg has changed for better, I know it too, the problem is, it doesn't matter how much things have improved over there, it won't have an inmediate effect on the foreign media and the foreign travel advisors.
In this sense, I believe the World Cup will help changing the image of Johannesburg throughout the world, which is greatly needed, and it would be a unique chance to launch an aggressive campaign to attact tourists to the city and to let the world know what Joburg is really like.

Think you may have hit the nail on the head Anton. Even here in the USA, people are petrified of the though of Johannesburg, and those are the few that actually think South Africa is a country and not just part of an amorphous "Africa". Due to Johannesburg's scenery, it will never have tourist appeal like Cape Town and to a certain extent, Durban. It would be the same as Dallas wanting to mean the same to the international tourist market as San Francisco, or Toronto wanting Vancouver, or Hamburg wanting Munich... I can go on and on. I think were Johannesburg needs to position themselves is as a business and shopping destination. It will never have the "wow, look how pretty" factor, stop trying to chase it and chase the money and chase the urban wow-factor. Joburg's slow manouvre to be the "world class African city" is probably aimed in the correct direction.

Think you may have hit the nail on the head Anton. Even here in the USA, people are petrified of the though of Johannesburg, and those are the few that actually think South Africa is a country and not just part of an amorphous "Africa". Due to Johannesburg's scenery, it will never have tourist appeal like Cape Town and to a certain extent, Durban. It would be the same as Dallas wanting to mean the same to the international tourist market as San Francisco, or Toronto wanting Vancouver, or Hamburg wanting Munich... I can go on and on. I think were Johannesburg needs to position themselves is as a business and shopping destination. It will never have the "wow, look how pretty" factor, stop trying to chase it and chase the money and chase the urban wow-factor. Joburg's slow manouvre to be the "world class African city" is probably aimed in the correct direction.
yip. find out what you good at as a city, as market it aggressively.
people in cape town don't go to the waterfront to have fun, the V&A is what it is. a tourist magnet at an amazing setting, and sees 22 million people a year.

Although I have got drunk at Ferrymans way too many times to remember with mates... that was fun! He he :cheers:

Another quick question Mo... I'm a bit stupid... how do you post pics to a thread. I may just be computer-inept!

Although I have got drunk at Ferrymans way too many times to remember with mates... that was fun! He he :cheers:

well there is def fun to be had..alba lounge is fantastic and there are a few great restaurants, but it is essentially a shopping centre, not a fan of ocean basket but it does have a huge chunk of table mountain as a view.

Another quick question Mo... I'm a bit stupid... how do you post pics to a thread. I may just be computer-inept!

www.photobucket.com - sign up and upload pics from your pc/laptop
copy the link to this thread
or press the yellow picture button on the toolbar when posting to this thread and paste the link

or get the link and .. [img]link goes here