Tourism Trade Partners - please be sure to read this! Our new approach to marketing and other promotional activities was triggered mainly by two considerations: Firstly: With yet another change in marketing representative in the pipeline and beyond our control, we decided to do away with conventional marketing and embark on a different route, which is outlined below.
We trust it will suit our booking agents just as well, especially because it will be up to them from now on to decide when to connect with us, after receiving our communication invitations in the form of newsletters and web links.
Secondly: We prefer to let our actions do the talking and to communicate them to you directly, in person so to speak, rather than to distribute "generic" descriptions of the Giardino in printed marketing material ... that is bound to be outdated on publication date anyway because there is almost always something going on that you are probably interested in.
We also are dedicated to "greening" our guesthouse and business operations where possible in order to make contributions to the preservation of our fragile immediate and somewhat shaky global environment. Printing glossy brochures, delivering them by car to local booking agents and sending them by air-mail all over the world, as well as creating a considerable amount of waste in such processes just did not sound like viable propositions anymore. We needed an eco-friendly solution!
We also wanted to find a way to communicate news faster, more often, and more up-to-date than any outside marketing representation could do - while at the same time keeping cost at bay so that we would be able to maintain accommodation rates as well as food & beverage prices at reasonable levels without compromising on quality and future upgrade and expansion plans.
And we needed someone to make all of the above happen, someone who knew the Giardino from the inside out, who followed developments closely, and who was able to convert events on the ground into messages that would convey a genuine picture of where the Giardino is going as well as ensure that our communications would reach the intended recipients.
That "someone" happened to be Inge Ohm, our webmaster-photographer-graphic designer-all purpose support-....-and-friend of 10 years. Inge not only takes an active interest in the Giardino and shares our views on values and concept but also had already developed the right infrastructure for her own business activities under the Web-doS banner to turn our requirements into reality.
Here are the results... - We are NOT represented by Exclusive Marketing & Reservations any longer. Marketing and all other promotion activities are now shared between the team based at Sam's Giardino in Swakopmund and Inge based in Windhoek, as outlined in the following:
- For brochure orders, email us directly or phone/skype us in Swakopmund.
In line with our green drive, we only print DL-sized flyers that are light-weight and easy to mail. A new flyer design came into circulation in July 2008. If you did not yet receive fresh stock, please contact us.
- To order photos and info material for your print & web publications ...
you are most welcome to contact Inge directly at web-it@iway.na.
Any such requests sent to us in Swakopmund will be forwarded to Inge in Windhoek for further handling. Inge will also answer your product-related
questions and to anything concerning our different web publications.
- For rates requests, email us directly or phone/skype us in Swakopmund.
Newsletters will inform you, when prices for a new season will be available.
Rack Rates only are published on this site and in our Giardino On-line Guide.
STO Rates will be emailed individually from the Giardino office, as before ... we
are going to work on a web solution for this too some time!
- For in-depth information, visit our product manual: Giardino On-line Guide.
This web publication is YOUR main working tool that keeps everything you might want to look up at your fingertips ... and our main contribution to
encourage our trade partners to do business with the Giardino the "green" way!
Since the Giardino On-line Guide is part of the Namibia Tourism Web Portal
www.namibia-unlimited.com owned by Web-doS, you will also be able to find a lot of general information on the travel destination Namibia and on other
Namibian tourist service suppliers in its neighbourhood. The Giardino On-line Guide replaces the presentations provided by marketing agencies earlier and we recommend that you bookmark its index page!
- From Nov. 2008 onwards, we will distribute newsletters by email about
3-4 times per year, and more often, if necessary. Newsletters will reach you in two different shapes - dedicated Giardino News will be distributed by Inge through SGpromo@giardinonamibia.com, probably 2 x per year, and in between, you will hear from us through Namibia-Unlimited.com's own newsletters via news@namibia-unlimited.com.
Ensure your inclusion in distributions by subscribing to these newsletters!
Please allow both these email addresses to deliver newsletters to your Inbox! This will be particularly import, once we are going to increase the newsletter frequency to keep you informed of progress on our extension building ... we are still holding our breath but expect to see some movement in 2009!
- Booking agents based in Namibia requiring a full Giardino Presentation
for product training purposes of staff:
Please advise us of place & timing suitable to you - we'll make arrangements.
We will assign this task to an experienced person, if and when required.
- Giardino participation in tourism trade fairs
Please refer to this site and to our emailed news to find out at which trade fairs
you will be able to meet with us. Apart from the HTTF 2008 in Windhoek this November, we have not yet made commitments to be present or represented at any of the trade fairs in 2009. We'll keep you posted!
With this we hope to have opened up far better communication channels as much as to have set an example for responsible, sustainable tourism practices.
For the remainder, please do keep in touch - we'll love to hear from you, also with guest feedback, and our open invitation for inspection visits still stands!
P. S. If you didn't read the
other October 2008 news headlines yet, please do
so now - they contain important info too! | 
