South African Tourism

Neliswa Nkani Hub Head – MEISEA, South African Tourism

The year 2022: We started this year by outlining a strategic roadmap that helped us successfully garner a 64 per cent YoY increase in Indian visitors to South Africa. Our efforts to showcase the diversity and value proposition of destination South Africa have helped us surpass our annual target of attracting 33,910 Indian arrivals to South Africa. Our media, trade, and marketing efforts have helped us stay top-of-mind and excite Indian audiences. Interest and inquiries for destination South Africa, especially from Indian businesses and leisure travellers have multiplied since the start of our recovery campaign, More & More, which rolled out in the first quarter of 2022. In July, we announced the launch of an exclusive India airfare campaign in partnership with Air

Seychelles to support our value-for-money proposition.

Preparedness and expectations from India market in 2023: As we gear up for the new year, South African Tourism will continue to proactively and meaningfully engage with its travel trade partners and tour operators to boost tourism and Indian visitor arrivals to South Africa. We will constantly communicate with key travel agents and tour operators through interactive knowledge exchange webinars while conveying timely and focused destination updates. We plan to keep upskilling and reskilling the travel trade fraternity to identify synergies that help them sell South Africa in the best way possible to the new-age Indian consumer. We anticipate many footfalls from India as our travel trade partners already see an upswing in inquiries for destination South Africa. In collaboration with our province partners, we are making conscious efforts towards promoting sustainable and rural tourism to give back to the local communities and economy. With highly customised and personalised itineraries, we are looking at mobilising niche communities like biking groups, runners, and golfers.