South African Tourism begins 2018 with the 15th edition of its biggest travel trade initiative in India. South African Tourism’s Roadshow will travel to five Indian cities; Mumbai, Kolkata, Bangalore, Delhi and Ahmedabad starting from 12th to 19th February 2018.
The participation and scale is a reflection of the strong consumer demand witnessed from India which, is currently the 8th largest international source market for South African Tourism. These B2B engagement act as catalysts for booking conversions which stimulate visitor growth hence, contribute to achieving the targets charted out for 2018. Nearly 450 travel agents from Delhi met up with 60 South African suppliers to better align efforts and address the ever evolving demands of the Indian traveller.
Keeping some of these consumer trends in mind, one of the key focus areas is to go beyond the immensely popular Cape Town, Durban, Johannesburg & surrounds and Kruger National Park and create awareness about new destinations such Oudtshoorn, Knysna, Plettenberg Bay, Port Elizabeth and the Drakensberg region. These are picturesque areas where travelers can pack in a lot of action into shorter time-spans.
“The Indian market has not just grown considerably since our entry in 2005, demands of Indian travellers are in a constant and rapid state of evolution even today. This makes cross sharing of insights, trends and observations between our Indian and South African partners extremely crucial. We have had South African products being tailored to suit these specific needs as a testament of the value proposition we see in the market,” stated Hanneli Slabber, Regional General Manager, Asia/Australasia/Middle East, South African Tourism.
For the period of Jan 2017 to September 2017, MICE contributed 32.8% of total Indian arrivals into SA, leisure holidays made up 26.8% while business travellers made up 16.4% and VFR was at 16%. Another significant observation was the rise in millennial Indian travellers to South Africa. In the first quarter for 2017, nearly 35% of the Indian visitor base comprised of 35 year olds while, for the second quarter of the year, this pie grew to 46%. In 2017, Delhi contributed 22% to the overall Indian arrivals to South Africa while Mumbai was at 37%, Gujarat at 11%, Bangalore at 8% and West Bengal at 7%.
Commenting on the Roadshow in India, Alpa Jani, Acting Hub-Head, Middle East/India/South East Asia, South Africa Tourism said, “We have always recorded an outstanding response from the Indian travel trade and are eagerly looking forward to seeing the positive impact this Roadshow will have towards driving Indian traveller traffic to South Africa in 2018. India is undoubtedly a significant market for us and all trade and consumer efforts are directed towards harnessing the true potential this market has to offer. We are also focusing on customizing our engagements and product offerings to suit the unique requirements from each of our target regions within India.”
