In order to start business as usual post pandemic, South African Tourism has aggressively embarked on the promotional and awareness activities including introduction of new products, travel itineraries, etc. among the Indian stakeholders.
The tourism board has kicked-off its annual four city roadshow from New Delhi today with 36 suppliers and showcased its long term investment and interest in the Indian market and outlined a strategic roadmap to garner 64 percent growth in the arrivals from India in the year 2022. Sibusiso Ndebele, High Commissioner, Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary graced the occasion.
While interacting, Neliswa Nkani, Hub Head, MEISEA, South African Tourism informed that she is very optimistic to get on to the path of recovery and have a wonderful growth in the year ahead. South African Tourism is targeting at least 64 percent growth in the current year over 2021. Despite the outbreak of new variant of Covid-19 – Omicron which caused lost of business, the country has received 20, 000 travellers from India in 2021.
While elaborating on her plan to achieve the target, she said that South African Tourism board is excited to introduce its partners and consumers a host of value-driven and thoughtfully crafted adventures.
“Our evolved brand strategy will help us drive South Africa’s value proposition across stakeholders while creating customized engagement model to suit the unique requirements from each of our target regions within India,” explained Neliswa Nkani. “We are already seeing an uptick in forward travel bookings and hope to further build aspiration and intent to travel,” she added.
According to her, to make travel convenient and achieve a remarkable growth from India, the government is connecting with various airlines to start a direct flight. “Though we have several stop-over flights connecting these two countries, we are expecting direct flights between India and South Africa soon as the positive talks are in progress with Vistara, Indigo, Air Asia and South African Airways.
She further informed that the country is on track to roll-out e-visa in India in next couple of months.
“We are also conscious of the need for value-driven itineraries and undertaking bullish measures to ensure that every rupee spent ensures maximum returns. By engaging with airlines on subsidized fares for the India market, we are looking to bring down the cost of travel remarkably,” she said.
She revealed that India retains its place amongst the top three markets for South Africa. This is aided by the fact that prior to the pandemic, India has served as the eighth largest international source market for South Africa.
Travellers from India to South Africa will be required to produce a negative PCR test, not older than 72 hours from the time of departure.
