NTB Europe translates Namibia to the world

By Jana-Mari Smith

By means of limited funds interwoven with clever marketing strategies, the Namibia Tourism Board (NTB) in Frankfurt is holding up its end when it comes to giving their all to promote Namibia as a go-to destination. 

Maureen Posthuma, NTB area manager in Frankfurt, told delegates at this year’s HAN congress that by applying a number of strategies aimed at building partnerships with strategically selected partners, NTB has managed to build up the know-how and the ability to spread the word on Namibia most effectively. 

Through things like joint marketing operations with various partners such as tour operators or companies like Land Rover and jointly offered sweepstakes, NTB is able to squeeze out the most potential from a sparse marketing budget in order to reach clients in target markets in Europe. 

Maureen Posthuma

She explained that the strategy of sharing investments for marketing activities, such as a wide spread billboard campaign with a well known tour operator, has allowed NTB to act effectively with the minimum financial input. 

“By sharing on a fifty fifty basis with the trade, the limited funds of NTB can be used in a much wider perspective and more partners can be involved”, she explained during her presentation.

At the moment, NTB is working jointly with about 30 partners in Germany, and more in Austria, Switzerland and the Benelux. 

Another primary marketing point is the NTB office itself. Maureen said that information packages specifically targeted to the German and European audience, are distributed from there – around a thousand a month. 

NTB has an all round, integrated approach to marketing including making optimal use of online marketing campaigns, social media, radio, print and television. This year, an Ipad app (soon to be available for the Iphone) – Entdecke Namibia (Discover Namibia) was voted as the second best travel app in Germany. Furthermore, NTB attends trade fairs and events. 

Other efforts include hosting between 50 to 60 journalists each year in cooperation with partners to visit and report on Namibia. 

She said that overall NTB believes that “PR and media is the only way to create awareness”. In a study conducted by NTB partners, it was shown that due to NTB promotional joint efforts, more than 3 000 articles appeared in print media in Germany, targeting a total circulation figure of 81 million.