South Africa tourism expects over 1 lakh visitors from India in 2020

PTI, Jan 16, 2020, 9:45 AM IST

Mumbai: South African Tourism on Wednesday said it expects over 1,00,000 Indian travellers to visit the country with its specialised product offerings to suit people from the sub-continent.

“India continues to remain one of our key focus markets globally and it is encouraging to observe consistent, upward growth from traditional regions like Mumbai, Delhi and Bengaluru as well as rising visitor traffic from emerging cities like Pune,” South African Tourism Hub Head, MEISEA (Middle East, India and South-East Asia), Neliswa Nkani said in a statement here.

With more and more visitors citing South Africa’s scenic natural beauty as a reason to visit, the country is focused in its efforts towards opening newer geographies, she added.

“This will serve the dual objective of catering to this very consumer demand as well as offering a diversity of itinerary options for our trade partners to sell. We are promoting South Africa through this 3-day roadshow and we expect to surpass the target of 1,00,000 Indian visitors to South Africa in the current year,” she added.

Around 81,316 Indians visited South Africa in 2019 till October, and the average length of stay witnessed a year-on-year increase of 8 per cent in the first half of 2019, the release said.

Mumbai continued to be the leading source market for South African Tourism from India.

During January-June 2019, around 43 per cent of Indian visitors to the Rainbow Nation were from Mumbai.

Around 62 per cent of the visitors from the financial capital of India travelled solo, while 13 per cent travelled with their partners.

According to market research conducted by the South African Tourism Board, 50 per cent travellers from Mumbai make South Africa trip for scenic beauty, 29 per cent to engage with locals, 27 per cent to explore wildlife offerings, 21 per cent to explore culture and history and 21 per cent for the best of diversity of experiences (27 per cent) offered by the country.

Leisure travel (29 per cent) is the primary reason for visitors from Mumbai to travel to South Africa, followed by meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions (MICE) (22 per cent), business travel (25 per cent) and visiting friends and relatives (10 per cent).

Delhi continued to be the second leading source market for South African Tourism with 21 per cent travellers during January-June 2019 from the national capital.

About 40 per cent visitors from Delhi travelled solo, while 26 per cent visited with their partners, it said.