The road show, which is also travelling to Bangalore, Chennai, Delhi and Pune, is an opportunity for trade partners from India as well as South Africa to come together and forge profitable business ties.
As South African Tourism began its eight annual road show from Mumbai on Monday, the country’s tourism minister, Marthinus van Schalkwyk, laid bare the plan to draw younger Indian tourists to the African nation’s shores.
Schalkwyk told DNA, “Tourism-wise, while we continue to concentrate on what make us historically successful, that is, leisure tourism and safaris, we are also focusing on younger tourists who want to enjoy food, wine and shopping.”
India is the largest Asian market contributing to South African tourism. The number of Indian tourists travelling from India to South Africa has steadily increased by over 122% between 2005 and 2010.
The road show, which is also travelling to Bangalore, Chennai, Delhi and Pune, is an opportunity for trade partners from India as well as South Africa to come together and forge profitable business ties.
The tourism department is also heavily concentrating on the meetings, incentives, conventions and exhibitions industry. South Africa recently won the bid to host the Travel Agents Federation of India Convention in November. It is now bidding for the Travel Agents Association meeting.
Insisting that it is necessary to strike a balance between responsible tourism and economic growth, Schalkwyk said, “We were the first country in the world that released minimum standards for responsible tourism. There is obviously the green dimension of it — that business tourism establishments should be more environment-friendly. But, it must also lead to economic growth locally.”
Picking Cape Town and Johannesburg among cities and natural wonders like the Table Mountain as the most popular destinations his country among Indian tourists, Schalkwyk also indicated that the African nation wants to establish a two-way relationship with the tourism industry in India by encouraging South Africans to visit the country. “There is a lot of potential for knowledge-sharing. I think we have the best model in the world to manage our national parks. But, I think we can also learn a lot from India; most importantly, how to involve local communities since we have a shared history in which a lot of people were excluded from getting benefits.”
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