The Tourism Ministry in South Africa ushered in this year with its biggest travel trade scheme in India. It is the 17th edition of their Annual Road Show of the South Africa Tourism. This road show intends to capitalise on the strong potential consumer demand among the Indian visitors in order to exceed the tourists’ arrival target of 100,000 Indian visitors to South Africa in the current year.
Neliswa Nkani, Hub Head, MEISEA, South African Tourism said that India continues to remain one of their key focus markets globally and it is encouraging to observe consistent, upward growth from traditional regions like Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore as well as rising visitor traffic from emerging cities like Pune. With more and more visitors citing South Africa’s scenic natural beauty as reasons to visit, they are focused in their efforts towards opening up newer geographies in our country. This will serve a dual objective of catering to this very consumer demand as well as offering a diversity of itinerary options for their trade partners to sell.
Mumbai continues to be the leading source market for South African Tourism in India. Between January to June 2019, around 43% of total Indian visitors to the Rainbow Nation were from Mumbai. 62% of visitors from Mumbai travelled solo, while 13% travelled with their partners. According to market research conducted by the tourism board, travellers from Mumbai make the trip to South Africa to soak in scenic beauty (50%), engage with locals (29%), explore wildlife offerings (27%), culture and history (21%) while also immersing themselves and making the best of the diversity of experiences (27%) offered by the Rainbow Nation. Leisure travel (29%) is the primary reason for visitors from Mumbai to travel to the destination. MICE (22%), business travel (25%) and VFR (10%) closely follow suit. The holiday periods of May, April and December were preferred travel months amongst Mumbaikars for their South Africa trips.
Delhi continues to be the second leading source market for South African Tourism in India. Between January to June 2019, around 21% of total Indian visitors to the Rainbow Nation were from Delhi. 40% visitors from Delhi travelled solo, while 26% travelled with their partners. According to market research conducted by the tourism board, travellers from Delhi make the trip to South Africa to soak in scenic beauty (22%), engage with warm locals (13%), explore wildlife offerings (13%), culture and history (8%) while also immersing themselves and making the best of the diversity of experiences (13%) offered by the Rainbow Nation. Leisure travel (35%) is the primary reason for visitors from Delhi to travel to the destination. MICE (30%), business travel (13%) and VFR (14%) closely follow suit. The summer and winter holiday periods of April, May and December emerged as preferred travel months amongst Delhiites for their South Africa trips.
Sharing further insights, Ms. Nkani stated that South Africa has traditionally been perceived as a multi-generation, family destination, it is heartening to see the substantial share of solo travellers in the overall Indian traveller pie. Their evolved brand strategy will help us drive South Africa’s value proposition across stakeholders while creating customized engagement models showcasing destination product offerings to suit the unique requirements from each of our target regions within India.
With 81,316 Indian arrivals as of October 2019, the destination board shared a positive outlook for the Indian market, noting that as of September 2019, total spends by Indian travellers in South Africa had reached a 4-year high. Average length of stay witnessed a year on year increase of 8% in the first half of 2019.
