Objectives

The primary objective is to position the City of Ekurhuleni as a leading global tourism, business, and lifestyle destination by developing a distinct destination brand and launching a dedicated digital platform. Specific goals include enhancing brand loyalty and equity, stimulating local visitation, improving the geographical spread of tourists, establishing a credible online presence, and driving tourism-related economic growth and job creation through strategic branding and marketing.

Scope of Work

• Destination Brand Development: Conduct research and strategy formulation, create a visual identity system (logo, typography, colour palette), produce a comprehensive corporate identity manual, deliver an animated logo, and provide all final assets in print-ready and web-optimised formats.
• Tourism Website Design & Development: Build and launch a fully responsive informational website showcasing the city’s areas, attractions, events, heritage, economic zones, news, and tourism specials. Includes content writing, professional photography sourcing, CMS configuration, cross-browser testing, and three months of post-launch support.
• Brand Management Dashboard: Develop a secure, restricted-access online repository for storing, organising, and distributing approved brand assets. Features include version control, role-based permissions, audit logging, and administrator training.
• Custom Itinerary Planner: Create an interactive web tool enabling visitors to build personalised day-by-day trip schedules, view mapped routes, and receive indicative travel times and costs based on selected transport modes.

Technical Requirements

• Fully responsive design optimised for desktop, tablet, and mobile devices across all major browsers.
• Compliance with WCAG 2.1 Level AA accessibility standards and POPIA data protection regulations.
• SEO-friendly architecture, XML sitemaps, human-readable URLs, and integrated web analytics.
• Robust security measures including SSL/HTTPS encryption, secured CMS access, strong password policies, automatic session timeouts, and multi-factor authentication for administrators.
• Multilingual-ready architecture designed to accommodate future South African language expansions.
• Dashboard must enforce encrypted data transfer, automated backups, tamper-resistant audit trails, and time-limited external access without permanent account creation.
• Itinerary planner must utilise city-maintained distance and cost assumptions to calculate accurate travel metrics across private vehicles, e-hailing, public transport, shuttles, and walking.

Skills & Personnel Requirements

• Project Manager: Degree in Marketing or Communication with 2–5 years of project management experience.
• Head Developer: Degree in Web Development, IT, or Software Development with 2–5 years of relevant technical experience.
• Content Writer/Copywriter: Diploma in Public Relations or Communications with 2–5 years of content development or writing experience.
• Graphic Designer: Diploma in Graphic Design with 2–5 years of professional design experience.
• Bidders must also demonstrate financial capacity (minimum R100,000), provide two verifiable reference letters for similar agency/web projects, and comply with municipal supply chain and transformation regulations.

Explanation of Unusual/Complex Terms

360 Marketing Agency: Refers to a full-service provider contracted to manage every aspect of brand strategy, creative design, digital development, and campaign execution under a single agreement, eliminating the need for multiple specialised vendors.

Brand Management Dashboard: A secure, internal-only digital vault for brand assets featuring strict access controls, version tracking, and audit trails. It ensures brand consistency by preventing the circulation of outdated or unapproved materials while allowing authorised partners controlled, time-limited access.

Custom Ekurhuleni Itinerary Planner: An interactive web application that allows users to construct personalised daily travel schedules. It automatically calculates estimated durations and costs across various transport options, encouraging longer stays and wider regional exploration by simplifying trip logistics and budgeting.