South African Tourism targets 72% increase in arrivals from India in 2023
~India moves up two spots to become the 6th largest international source market~
~Chennai projected to be the highest Indian growth market by 2025~
Chennai, 14th February 2023 : South Africa emerged as one of the leading travel destinations for Indians in 20 22. Owing to its robust recovery efforts and aim to promote diverse, authentic destination offerings through the More & More campaign, an increasing number of Indian travellers are choosing South Africa as their next adven ture destination. Witnessing over a 200% surge in travellers from India compared to the previous year, the Rain bow Nation welcomed nearly 50,000 Indians till November last year. The growth resulted in South African To urism significantly exceeding its goal of bringing 33,900 plus visitors set at the beginning of the recovery year.
To propel the momentum further, South African Tourism is organising Roadshows in key Indian cities – Kolkata, Chennai, Hyderabad, and Mumbai between 13th and 16th February along with its 35-member trade delegation showcasing innovative and one-of-a-kind offerings for Indian consumers and trade partners. Participating exhib itors represented key regions such as Western Cape, KwaZulu-Natal, Gauteng, Limpopo, and Eastern Cape aspi ring for fruitful partnerships. The Roadshow held in Chennai resulted in reinforcement of existing business deals between key Indian and South African trade partners as well as paved the way towards building many such mea ningful partnerships in the near future.
In 2022, India moved up two spots to become the 6th largest interna ti onal source market for driving tourism in S outh Africa. Providing gui dance on its strategic roadmap for 2023, tourism board is aiming to ac hieve a substan tial increase of 72% in Indian travellers over their pre vious year’s target. Confident in retaining the momentum, the tour ism board will closely work with its trade partners to offer carefully cur at ed itineraries comprising exc eptional yet affordable stay ameni ties, luxury experiences, offbeat activities, advanced MICE infra structure al ong with adventure, wildlife, and culinary activities.
“This is the 19th edition of our annual India Roadshow, and each time we are humbled by the warmth destination South Africa receives from travellers across the country. India continues to remain one of our key focus markets globally and it is encouraging to see upward growth from emerging cities like Kolkata, Chennai, and Hyderabad, while traditional mark ets like Mumbai and Delhi continue to flourish. Building on this momentum further, we recently launched the second leg of our More & More campaign to engage with the audience from our target regions within India through desi and local iz ed content. Through our customized engagement models we hope to further build aspiration and intent to travel,” said Neliswa Nkani, Hub Head, MEISEA, South African Tourism.
Chennai is a strategically important market for South African Tourism and is projected to grow at 30% CAGR to be come the highest Indian growth market for the tourism board by 2025. Most visitors from the city have an in cl ined preference towards South Africa as their summer travel destination. The relaxation in travel norms post th e pandemic has been one of the biggest motivators and is showing no signs of slowing down.
Against the backdrop of celebrating the completion of 30-years of bilateral relations with India, during the press conference, South African Tourism rejoiced over its shared rich heritage and warm hospitable culture that bring s the two countries together. At present, several stop-over flights fly from India to South Africa, including Emir ates, Qatar Airways, Ethiopian Airlines, Kenya Airways, and Air Seychelles.
About South African Tourism : South African Tourism is the tourism marketing arm of the South African govern ment. Simply put, their job is to promote the country domestically and internationally, whether for leisure, busi ness or events tourism. As a government body, they are committed to meaningfully contributing to the South Af rican government’s obje ctives of inclusive economic growth, sustainable job creation, and redistribution and tr ansformation of the indu stry.
Website www.southafrica.net
