Every year the festival attracts thousands of arts lovers from all over South Africa, and the world over, to enjoy 11 days filled with various cultural and crafty performances and exhibitions.
Zomato Country Manager Heino Gehle said it was important for the app to list Grahamstown just in time for this festival.
“This festival is known for pulling in huge crowds and we wanted to make sure that we could make their food journey a bit more seamless,” he said. “However, even with the drive to list before the festival we still wanted to make sure we are able to correctly capture and provide all details to our users in the best possible manner.”
Gehle said that this process couldn’t be an overnight one as the company’s biggest strength is its data and everything had to be correct.
“We follow a ‘feet on street’ approach where our team visits every single restaurant in the city to collect information like contact details, menu, pictures, location and other attributes,” he added.
The company’s recent partnerships with festivals such as Taste of Cape Town and the
Delicious Festival, as well as corporates such as BMW and more recently
with local rapper Reason suggests that Zomato is committed to going beyond just listing restaurants.
“We are constantly trying to find innovative ways to penetrate different markets in order to grow the foodie culture in the country,” he said.
First time festival goers who are not familiar with the town can search for restaurants in the town on the website and app. Those who have frequented the establishments in the area, now can review the restaurants.
Festival goers can access all restaurant information on Zomato’s website available at
www.zomato.com or download Zomato’s free mobile app.
“We also encourage business owners to explore the full potential of how Zomato can help them grow their business at
www.zomato.com/business,” said Gehle.