Media Release 27 May 2010: Mossel Bay Tourism

Upgraded citi.mobi Site for Mossel Bay

“Mossel Bay at your fingertips! Find local restaurants, bars, hotels, attractions, news, weather and more while on the move …”

That’s how City.Mobi introduces its newly upgraded mobile guide to Mossel Bay – http://mosselbay.city.mobi/.

City.mobi – which has developed sites for destinations in Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, and Oceania – provides anyone travelling with a cell phone with information about where to stay and what to do, and, significantly, allows both locals and visitors to add reviews of listed restaurants, hotels and entertainment venues.

“The City.Mobi site will become an important part of the travellers’ experience of Mossel Bay,” said Mossel Bay Tourism’s Marcia Holm.

“Overseas visitors are already very tech-savvy, and in South Africa – where the uptake of mobile phones has surprised even the experts – people are becoming used to accessing information via this kind of site.”

She added that tourism worldwide was heavily influenced by the concept of peer reviews.

“More and more people are spending more and more time researching how other travellers have experienced their destinations of choice, which makes sites like City.mobi invaluable when it comes to marketing Mossel Bay,” she said.

“You begin by registering for an account with a user name and password at http://city.mobi/user/register,” said City.mobi’s David Walker. “It’s quick and easy, and once it’s done, you can log in to http://city.mobi/user/login to post your reviews and rate the various properties on the site.”

He said that reviews should be short, and that it was important to bear in mind that users would generally access the site from their mobile phones.

“Rating is done by choosing an icon. A Green Face means you give the place a thumbs up; a neutral (or orange) face means you give it a mixed review – in other words, you liked some things, but you disliked others; and a Red Face – which you should only choose as a last resort – means that you disliked the place, or that you had a bad experience there,” he said.

Thirty nine accommodation establishments, 27 local attractions; 8 bars and pubs, 15 restaurants, and 13 shopping experiences are currently listed on the Mossel Bay City.mobi site, which also offers translators, a currency converter, and feeds to news and sports stories.

“The translator is a useful tool, but it can also be fun,” said Marcia Holm. “For example, we asked it to translate ‘Please visit Mossel Bay’ from English to Spanish, and it came up with ‘por favor, visite la bahía de Mossel.’

“But you can imagine how a Spanish-speaking person could use it to get herself out of a spot or ask for something she wants.

“So she could enter ‘Por favor puedo tener un vaso de agua’ – and then show her waiter the result on her cell phone, so that he’d know that she was asking, ‘Please can I have a glass of water’.”

Ms. Holm said that it was important that the members of Mossel Bay Tourism should support sites like City.mobi.

“The internet is our most powerful marketing tool, and we’re very grateful that City.mobi has decided to provide us with its services in Mossel Bay,” she said.

ENDS 538 WORDS

Tags: city mobi, information, mossel bay, tourism