NELSON Mandela Bay Tourism (NMBT) recently won the gold award for service quality at the 2018 Chinese Tourism Welcome Awards (CTW) for its concerted effort to establish itself as premium destination in South Africa for Chinese visitors.
Held in Shanghai, the highly prestigious CTW Awards are recognised as the leading awards programme in its field.
Organised annually by the China Outbound Tourism Research Institute (COTRI) since 2004 the awards are aimed at recognising tourism service providers, destination management organisations, national tourism organisations, retailers, marketing and communication companies for their services to the Chinese outbound tourism market.
The CTW Awards winners were selected and judged by a panel of both Chinese and non-Chinese industry experts, evaluating entries from 30 countries globally in Asia, Europe, North America, the Caribbean and Africa.
With tough competition from around the globe, receiving the gold award for service quality makes this a noteworthy accomplishment for the NMBT team.
NMBT earned the award, having made great strides to establish the Nelson Mandela Bay as a premium destination in South Africa for Chinese tourists.
This was built upon numerous years of high level campaigns for the Chinese market, reflecting NMBT’s commitment to high service quality in the tourist market, capable of delivering experiences to capture the interest of even the most intrepid Chinese free independent tourists (FIT) and providing world-class experiences with African wildlife, natural sights and adventure activities such as sand boarding.
Nelson Mandela Bay was identified as a destination that is rich in variety and culture by Annie Zhang, a South African tourism representative who received the award on behalf of NMBT and pointed out the greatest experiences like marine safaris, diving and exploring the sardine run.
She further highlighted the Nelson Mandela pass (a smart access card that gives FITs free entry to various attractions in the area) as one of the most popular introductions to the Chinese FIT market.
Speaking on behalf of the team, NMBT chief executive officer Mandlakazi Skefile said it is indeed a great honour for NMBT to receive this prestigious award and to be recognised for the efforts and contribution to the industry.
“This award is very symbolic, as it comes in the year that we celebrate the 100th year of Nelson Mandela’s birth, the great icon after whom this beautiful city is named.
“This award will motivate and inspire us to further our efforts to create world class tourist experiences to visitors, not only from China, but from all over the world,” Skefile said.
