South Africa makes efforts to attract more Chinese visitors
Compelling experiences combining pristine nature, wildlife, a city lifestyle, affordable luxury and amazing adventures, ranging from mountain hiking to shark cage-diving, have made South Africa popular with Chinese visitors.
The number of Chinese visitors to South Africa surged in 2016.
A total of 117,000 Chinese visited South Africa last year, representing a 38 percent year-on-year increase, according to the South African tourism authorities.
And the country is making moves to grab a bigger slice of the booming Chinese outbound tourism market.
“Compared to other source markets, China is still maturing,” says Bradley Brouwer, the president of South African Tourism’s Asia Pacific operations.
“The awareness of South Africa’s tourism offerings (in Chinese cities) ranged from largely unaware to some awareness … and the growth rate in arrivals is rising,” he adds.
South African Tourism held road shows in Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong over late February-early March.
And this year it is focusing on the excitement, surprise, joy and awe awaiting Chinese visitors to South Africa.
“We are proud to invite visitors to encounter the jaw-dropping ‘Wow!’ moments, once-in-a-lifetime experiences and unforgettable adventures found nowhere else in the world,” says Brouwer.
“South Africa casts a spell because it is not manufactured and mundane but authentically raw and unfiltered, which is exactly what today’s travelers seek,” he says.
Picturesque locations
The highlight of many vacation itineraries is the Garden Route between Cape Town and Port Elizabeth. It is a picturesque mix of ancient forests, lakes, mountain hideaways, historic towns and secluded bays and coves.
Speaking about the attractions on offer, Li Mengran, the public relations manager of Beijing Utour International Travel Service Co, a major outbound-travel operator in China, says: “The destination is suitable to tourists of all ages.”
Beautiful natural scenery, the culture, the animals and the deserts are all very attractive to the Chinese, she says.
“September to April is the best season to travel, when it is relatively cold in China.”
Meanwhile, South Africa has also got the attention of the rich Chinese.
It was one of the top winter destinations for high-end Chinese visitors in 2016, according to HHtravel, a high-end brand of China’s biggest online travel agency Ctrip.
Roughly 5 percent of the agency’s clients visited South Africa, HHtravel reported.
Visitors enjoyed the warm spring and summer weather there while avoiding the Chinese winter, the agency said.
The high-end visitors also enjoyed watching the lions, black rhinos and leopards at the Kruger National Park, besides the thousands of seals atop rocks in the Cape
We are proud to invite visitors to encounter the jaw-dropping ‘Wow!’ moments ... found nowhere else in the world.” Bradley Brouwer, president of South African Tourism’s Asia Pacific region
South Africa is the adventure capital of the world with some of the world’s finest safari game viewing in the Kruger National Park, South Africa’s premier Big 5 game park.
At the safari lodges in Mpumalanga, Limpopo and the Eastern Cape, the service, the cuisine, the spas and the wildlife encounters add up to a memorable experience.
Big 5 safaris in South Africa are a must-do for anyone fascinated by wildlife.
The Big 5 refers to the buffalo, the elephant, the lion, the leopard and the rhino and the term comes from the animals considered most dangerous to hunt. But nowadays, the thrill comes from photographing the animals in their natural habitat.
Namaqualand attracts more than 100,000 visitors every year, mainly because of its spectacular variety of wildflowers.
There, visitors can explore this vast region of the Northern Cape on horseback, which allows access to areas off the beaten track.
With a wine culture developing in China, Stellenbosch is also popular with Chinese travelers.
Stellenbosch is the second oldest town in South Africa, renowned for having the longest wine trail in the world.
It is globsly renowned for its beautiful environment, wineries, street cafes, restaurants, quality wines and historical buildings.
From June until November, the southern right whales are visible along the Cape South Coast, making it the perfect time of year for a whale-watching trip.
There, you do not even have to go out on a boat to see the whales because Hermanus, overlooking Walker Bay, is considered to be the best land-based whale-watching site in the world.
Hermanus’ cliffs offer an incomparable viewing point.
In addition to whale watching in Hermanus or traveling to Namaqualand to see the wildflowers in bloom, South Africa’s famed sardine run is a seasonal peculiarity that is popular among local and international visitors, including the Chinese, says Bradley.
“It’s a phenomenon certainly worth watching — from land, the ocean surface or underwater.”
Around June each year, word gets out along the KwaZulu-Natal coast that the sardines have arrived. They have swum for more than 30 days from their spawning ground in the Cape to reach South Africa’s east coast.
Then scores of fishermen join the sharks, game fish, marine mammals and birds that gorge themselves on the shimmering band of silver fish.
Visa facilitation centers
To encourage a seamless travel experience for Chinese citizens, South African Tourism has set up visa facilitation centers in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Chengdu, Xi’an, Shenyang, Wuhan, Jinan and Hangzhou.
And speaking of other promotional efforts, Brouwer says: “With China becoming the world’s largest outbound tourism source market of South Africa, we continuously participate in global and national events in China, such as the CIBTM (the China Incentive, Business Travel and Meetings Exhibition).”
South African Tourism has also established partnerships with major Chinese travel agencies, including U-tour, CYTS and Uniway, to stimulate demand for indigenous and real South African experiences.
Relationships with key airline partners are also being strengthened.
Now, Air China has a nonstop flight between Beijing and Johannesburg via a code share with SAA.
The direct overnight flight from Beijing to Johannesburg takes 15 hours.
In 2014, China became one of South Africa’s core tourism markets, alongside the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany and India.
South Africa expects the Chinese tourism boom to continue in 20172018, particularly due to the favorable exchange rate for visitors from the mainland.