Welcome to the Zulu Kingdom, KwaZulu-Natal

Table 5: Respondents by Communication Influence

Media                        Total        %
Advertisements               3065 3,1
Brochure/Travel Guide      27941 28,0
Fax on Demand                 28 0,0
History Books               5216 5,2
Information Sign       2687 2,7
Other                       3803 3,8
Print Ad                 63 0,1
Radio Advertisement        107 0,1
Road Sign               2219 2,2
Tourism Information Office    4704 4,7
TV Advertisement        197 0,2
Web Site                939 0,9
Word of Mouth              48947 49,0
Total                      99916 100.0

Word-of-mouth communication was yet again by far the most important medium influencing decisions to visit through making people aware of the facilities available. Such communications accounted, in this report again, for almost 50% of the total. Brochures and travel guides were shown to be increasingly important. They were the second most important method of influence accounting for almost 30% of the respondents. The importance of brochures, travel guides and other print media thus is shown to be continually increasing.

This was followed by other varieties of media advertising. These findings provide an indication that the marketing initiatives are having a positive effect on visitor behaviour, particularly with regards to the popularity of the annual TKZN Travel Guide. There has also been a slow but continued increase in the number of people influenced by web information, the TKZN web site still falling in the top 1% of all existing web sites worldwide!

Statistics of SA Tourism (2003) do indicate that 18% of tourists (quarter 3) where influenced by internet-other computer- accessed information. Other quarters 1, 2 and 4 had respectively 6, 12 and 16%)

Table 6: Respondents by Purpose of Visit

Purpose          Total      %
Business 10623    8,1
Holiday         81075   62,0
Other          6731    5,1
VFR         32408   24,8
Total        130837    100

Once again, as expected, the vast majority of people who filled in visitor books were people on holiday, and they accounted for almost two-thirds of the respondents.

The statistics of South Africa Tourism of 2004 indicate that most foreign tourists (65%) and domestic (75%) come to the province for the purpose of holiday.

The visitor book information in this report provides further support to the information provided by the KZN consumer surveys and the information obtained by S A Tourism. Furthermore, information provided by visitor books included home and email addresses of many of the respondents and this could be used for direct marketing, for advertising and for promotional campaigns, as well as for future planning.

Contents|| Next Section ||

Copyright © Tourism KwaZulu-Natal