South Africa Expects 100,000 Indian Tourists in 2018

With the growing number of Indians looking at foreign travel, more and more countries are trying to attract outbound tourists from the country. The latest in line is South Africa, which hopes that more than 1 lakh Indian visitors would travel to the country by the end of 2018.

To make the destination more attractive to Indians, the country is being promoted as a destination for numerous activities that are suitable for all age groups. South Africa Tourism is organizing roadshows in Mumbai, Kolkata, Bengaluru, Delhi and Ahmedabad this month to popularize the destination among Indians.

“We have observed that Indians are fond of activities, even on a leisure trip. So this year we are focusing on promoting activities here, which are suitable for all age groups,” Alpa Jani of South Africa Tourism told PTI.

“We want to offer an affordable, value for money destinations in our country so that we can get more visitors,” Hanneli Slabber, regional general manager, Asia, Middle East, South African tourism said during a media interaction at Bengaluru, the Deccan Herald reported. “We have some interesting offers, which includes no extra pay for the internal travel in South Africa. Even the ATM machines do not charge extra. If at all there is an extra charge, it must be from the banks here.”

Most Indians visiting South Africa are families (multi-generation), honeymooners, millennials and participants in MICE (meetings, incentives, conventions, and events). India is the eighth largest source market for foreign tourist arrivals in the country, the top five being the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Netherlands and France.

Most Indians traveling between January and September 2017 visited South Africa for MICE (32.8 per cent) while 26.8 per cent were there for leisure holidays. There were 16.4 per cent business travelers, while VFR (visiting family and relatives) comprised 16 per cent of the total visitors from India, according to South Africa Tourism. There was an increase of 35 per cent in the number of millennial Indians traveling to South Africa during the first quarter, and it rose to 46 per cent in the second quarter.

“This is encouraging in the light of the overall challenges faced by the Indian tourism industry which was recovering from the effects of demonetization and GST. In addition to visitor arrival numbers, in-destination spends remained stable while length of stay by Indians saw a positive spike,” she said.

South Africa, which has a significant Indian population, is also battling issues like corruption at the highest levels, and a serious water crisis, especially in big cities like Cape Town.

Among the travelers from India, 37 per cent came from Mumbai, white 22 per cent belonged to Delhi. The number comprised 11 per cent Gujaratis, 8 per cent Bangaloreans and 7 per cent Bengalis.

During January-November 2017, 89,882 Indians visited South Africa, while the number was 95,377 in 2016.