Spring into Joburg and Shop in the City with the Golden Touch
MAY 20, 2009
By Michael Sudarkasa, JSF Coordinator
THE ROAD TO SEPTEMBER AND THE LAUNCH
OF THE FIRST ANNUAL JOBURG SHOPPING FESTIVAL
(JSF)
With slightly more than three planning
months remaining until the launch of the
inaugural  Joburg
Shopping Festival (JSF), plans are crystallizing
on all fronts. After nearly eight months
of planning, meetings and correspondence
with the various stakeholder components
of the Festival, things are rounding into
shape.
The theme of the JSF - “Spring into Joburg
and Shop in the City with the Golden Touch”-
speaks to both the fact that the Festival
will usher in Spring in Johannesburg and
encourages visitors to come and visit
the City. The theme also incorporates
the new “City with the Golden Touch” tag
line that the Johannesburg Tourism Company
has launched to promote the City during
the FIFA Football World Cup and beyond.
The elements of the JSF are fairly straight
forward, including: a) promotion of Johannesburg’s
status as an African regional shopping
hub by encouraging local retailers to
coordinate their sales and promotions
in the month of September; and b) providing
a variety of other activities for shopping
tourists to participate in by building
the JSF into the strategic month of September
which is rich with existing tourism and
entertainment focused activity.
September heralds the commencement of
spring in the southern hemisphere and
affords retailers the ability to offer
seasonal sales (winter mark downs and
spring launches of new product and designs).
September is also traditionally a month
when the peak tourism season in South
Africa (SA) is commencing again after
the cold weather period of June - August
and this affords hotels the luxury of
offering very competitive pricing. 
In addition, September is national tourism
month and national heritage month. During
the former, South Africa Tourism, the
national tourism promotion agency, promotes
domestic tourism, and during the later,
the national, provincial and local government
s promote South African heritage events
throughout the month. This platform has
given the JSF planning team the opportunity
to build on the two themes and encourage
South African residents outside of Gauteng
to take a “Sho’t Left” to Joburg in September
and experience the country’s vibrant and
diverse heritage .
Existing activity in Johannesburg in
September include the annual Arts Alive
festival featuring music, arts and dance
and put on by the City of Johannesburg
Department of Arts and Culture, the annual
Standard Bank Soweto Wine Festival , and
the annual City of Johannesburg Soweto
(heritage) Festival which is convened
at month’s end around national Heritage
Day.
Although occurring over the last weekend
in August, the Standard Bank Joy of Jazz
festival has also been co-opted into the
JSF marketing programme as an event for
fun lovers planning to participate in
the JSF to attend.
Also, all of the September activity is
not domestically focused. The U.S. National
Basketball Association (NBA) brings its
“Basketball Without Borders” Top 100 camp
back to Johannesburg for the 7th straight
year and activities allowing participating
NBA stars to meet the local community
will be integrated into the JSF. The City’s
arts and culture district, New Town, will
also host the 4th World Summit on Arts
and Culture in September 2009, and bring
over 500 international visitors to SA
during the Arts Alive festivities.
The principal promoters of the JSF were
initially the City of Johannesburg, with
support coming from a variety of Department’s
with the Department of Economic Development
serving as the catalyst and driver. The
Johannesburg Tourism Company has stepped
in to help with the marketing of the Festival,
as has the City’s Marketing Office within
the Department of Public Liaison. Other
Departments that are expected to contribute
closer to the Festival include the Departments
of Emergency Service, The Johannesburg
Metro Police Department, Arts and Culture,
Metro Bus and City Parks. 
The City of Johannesburg’s 2010 Office
has also encouraged the JSF Planning team
to utilize the festivities around FIFA’s
Confederation Cup to promote the Festival
to the tens of thousands of international
visitors expected to visit the City in
June 2009. Thus, at tourist information
kiosks across the country, short promo
clips will be shown about the JSF on plasma
screens, literature about the JSF will
be distributed, and kiosk attendants will
brief visitors about the Festival.
In addition to the City’s support, however,
strong support has recently been forthcoming
from the Gauteng Tourism Authority, who
have given the marketing effort a big
push, and from the Gauteng Economic Development
Agency, who see the initiative as a galvanizing
one for the promotion of the province’s
“City-Region” initiative . GEDA is also
focused on supporting SMME participation
in the Festival and in using the Festival
as a platform to attract international
retail investment to the province. GEDA
has also invited the JSF to become a centre
piece of its annual “Africa Day” dinner
in May where members of the Diplomatic
Corps from Africa who are posted to Pretoria
in South Africa will be introduced to
the JSF.
Marketing for the inaugural “Gauteng
Retail Investment Forum” to which will
be held on September 19th began at this
year’s ReCON: The Global Real Estate Convention
that is held annually in May in Las Vegas,
Nevada in the USA. Members of the JSF
Planning team travelled to ReCON seeking
to identify international retailers that
do not have a presence in South Africa
to invite them to participate in the conference
and learning journey programme that the
City will host in September, just after
the South African Council of Shopping
Centres hosts its annual African Congress
of Shopping Centres, September 16-18 at
the Sandton Convention Centre.
Beyond the public sector driven initiatives,
the contribution of the local Johannesburg
retail sector, starting with the participating
malls has also been significant. The fourteen
participating malls to date include: Westgate
Shopping Centre, Northgate Shopping Centre,
Southgate Mall, Maponya Mall, Jabulani
Mall, Oriental Plaza, The Zone at Rosebank,
Village Walk in Sandton, Trade Route Mall,
The Boulders Shopping Centre, Walter Sisulu
Square, Montecasino, Brightwater Commons,
and Fourways Mall. Nationally known retail
chains like Foschini and the EDCON group,
Boogalos, and jewellery stores such as,
Forma Viva, have also expressed their
willingness to promote the JSF and to
offer discount sales during the Festival.
The strategy to get shopping tourists
to visit Johannesburg in September has
also gained a major implementation boost
through the significant interest that
has been shown by African airlines and
regional Southern African Development
Community bus coach lines in promoting
the JSF.
Lead by South African Airways, other
regional carriers such as Air Malawi,
Air Zimbabwe, Ethiopian Airlines and Kenya
Airways, have recognized the opportunity
presented by the Festival to increase
their air traffic in September and have
expressed their willingness to help promote
the JSF. As part of the promotional activity
leading up to the Festival, these carriers
are also being offered an opportunity
to participate (ticket raffles, tourism
promotion) in a series of local outreach
activities in malls across the City where
literature about the JSF is being disseminated
and local communities are getting a taste
of what the Festival is all about.
Given the aim of the JSF in becoming
“Africa’s” shopping festival, the Festival
is also offering tourism boards from other
African countries the opportunity to promote
their countries during the Festival by
hosting “cultural events” and “food festivals”
in and around the participating venues
of the JSF during the month of September.
This also will allow South African and
international visitors to the Festival
to experience a bit of the other cultures
in Africa and is particularly intended
to resonate with the hundreds of thousands
of non-South African Africans who make
Johannesburg and the Gauteng province
home. Additionally as the participating
African tourism boards will be encouraged
to raffle off trips to their country as
prizes to JSF participants, the aim of
the JSF is also to promote intra-African
tourism in support of the principles of
NEPAD.
Timed to leverage the international media
coverage of the FIFA Confederations Cup
which will kick off in June in Johannesburg,
June - August 2009 will mark the strategic
marketing period for the Joburg Shopping
Festival and news on the Festival will
be disseminated via outdoor media, local
and national newspapers in South Africa,
national radio and television, and digital
satellite TV broadcast to other parts
of the continent and world. AVUSA, MNET,
the South Africa Broadcasting Corporation,
the Caxton papers, and a long list of
lifestyle magazines are all platforms
through which the JSF will be promoted.
In addition, in-flight magazines of participating
travel partners will carry features on
the Festival, and participating bus lines
will use ticket sleeves and bus wraps
to promote the festival regionally.
“Spring into Joburg and Shop in the City
of Gold” – September months will never be
the same in Johannesburg, South Africa,
a truly World Class African City! We look
forward to seeing you at the Joburg Shopping
Festival.
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