New adventures to watch out for
Content, social media marketing and promotion of new destinations and activities are all that is going to drive South African Tourism in its endeavour to immerse the Indian traveller.
South African Tourism multi-city roadshow in Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata to provide trade partners from India and South Africa an innovative opportunity to interact with each other and discuss popular destinations and activities that South Africa has to offer to the the importance of the India market, Neliswa Nkani, Hub Head—Middle East, India and Southeast Asia, South African Tourism (SAT), said, - dress, the President of South Africa who was in India for the Republic Day celebrations made a profound announcement, stating that the growth for South Africa will come from India. It has given me a direction to focus on India
and attract Indian travellers by way of unique offerings from a value proposition perspective,” she said. Highlighting the common love for cricket of both the nations, Nkani added, popularity of cricket in India, we are now looking at a century from here. We closed 2018 with 98,000 Indian arrivals. Achieving 100,000 arrivals from here will be a modest growth. I believe in this market and I value it because of the love it has for South Africa. With over 3000 activities, Indian travellers are the largest adventure consumers in South Africa outside South Africa.” Nkani is very hopeful about 2019, especially with the immense support from both the Indian trade and media. social media drive in terms of showcasing South Africa with now going to lay emphasis on providing new offerings and new regions for Indian travellers. We are going to introduce Durban, Port Elizabeth, as adventure destinations,” she shared. Nkani is going to concentrate on the kind of content they provide whilst depicting the country through the eyes of learnt that this market is driven. Three core factors for us would be content management and integration, social media drive, new region hostings and introduction, as well as new activities. We also realised that there is a lot of interest in South Africa as a weddding destination due to its affordability. I always make the analogy—the rupee to the dollar is 72 while the rupee to the rand is 5. Numbers, Direct connectivity remains a problem between India and South Africa. Nkani believes that this issue too who was recently in India, made an announcement that South African Airways will soon start direct operations between the two countries. From where I come, when the highest authority speaks, we normally deliver. He has sent a message to South African effect will not only be on leisure but also on MiCE, which contributes to 28 per cent of our total travel contribution,” she claimed. On easing the visa regime, Nkani said that while the embassy is doing its part, SAT along with its consular services has started a process of pre-approving the top two operators that are strategic collaboration we have with our embassy as well as our consulates, we are able to tell the top months when visas are issued and top two operators who are moving the visas. With this, we give priority to those who give us numbers so that their business can grow. There is always a value chain. If the tour operators are able to get the visa out faster, they are able to then get more clients into the system. The system then churns out more people for us in terms of arrivals,” she concluded.
We are now looking at a century from India. We closed 2018 with 98,000 Indian arrivals. Achieving 100,000 arrivals from here will be a modest growth