Incentives for visitors
Business, stakeholders join in on the initiative to lure tourists to the two countries
SA is becoming an increasingly popular destination for Chinese tourists lured by competitive prices and direct flights between Beijing and Johannesburg. Visiting SA for around 10 days and spending more than R40,000 per trip on average, Chinese tourists typically include Cape Town in their itineraries. During 2016 the number of Chinese visitors to SA grew by 38%.
The local tourism industry supports one in every 10 jobs in SA.
In response, a number of local tour operators are focusing on offering Mandarin-speaking guides and have translated their promotional material into Mandarin. SA Tourism (SAT), meanwhile, has upped its marketing efforts by holding exhibitions and consumer seminars in China and has established visa facilitation centres in a number of major Chinese cities.
SAT has a number of travel trade and media events scheduled for the next 18 months across China to promote SA as a destination of choice for leisure visitors as well as a meetings, incentives, conferences and events destination.
Last year SAT launched the I Go SA loyalty programme in partnership with Standard Bank and the Industrial Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) to encourage tourism between China and SA.
The initiative is part of ICBC’S I Go Global loyalty programme, which aims to capitalise on the increased numbers of Chinese travellers to SA. Launched in November 2017, it rewards cardholders with up to 21% cash back on certain transactions, free Wifi, card insurance, accommodation deals and discounted return flights.
The programme was designed by Standard Bank in partnership with ICBC. The latter has about 139m credit card customers. Standard Bank and ICBC said they expected more than 100,000 Chinese tourists to SA this year, each with an average transaction value of R18,500. The initiative offers similar rewards to Standard Bank cardholders travelling in China.