The official promotions agency for New York and its five boroughs – NYC & CO – began their foray into the African market at the World Travel Market Africa event in Cape Town. Their brief was two-fold: To set up meetings with key travel industry players from Nigeria, Ethiopia, Kenya and South Africa, and country guides for each respective market detailing the nature of the travel industry, macro-economic factors and key considerations for New York companies wishing to do business in Africa.
New York City
What we did
Services activated
Design, PR, Events
What happened
Big Ambitions managed to fill 43 out of 46 appointment slots for NYC & Co and the inbound DMC that attended during the event. Big Ambitions also interviewed stakeholders in Nigeria, South Africa and Ethiopia to create comprehensive Country Guides and developed a database of contacts that were not attending the event, but would be interested in working with NYC & Co in future.
How we did it
With only a few weeks before the show, Big Ambitions compiled a list of key stakeholders that would meet the criteria of NYC & Co. Since WTM Africa is predominantly an inbound show, many of the relevant contacts had not heard about the event, nor were planning to attend. Using our industry contacts, we persuaded outbound trade to attend a predominantly inbound show so that NYC & Co could connect with them. Meetings were scheduled with key industry stakeholders from several African markets.
But, don’t take our word for it…
“I recently worked with Big Ambitions on an in-market project and I was really impressed with their amazing professionalism, diligence, proactive work ethic and excellent follow through. Their industry relationships and market knowledge are second to none, and I would definitely use their services in the future.”
Makiko Matsuda Healy, NYC & Co VP Tourism Development
