South African Tourism has marked 26.6 per cent increase in Indian arrivals in 2016, in comprision to last year. By September 2016, Indian arrivals to South Africa had hit 73,902, making India the eighth largest long-haul tourism source market. South African Tourism also had significant developments both on the consumer and trade fronts propelled by a fresh outlook on how it engages with the India market.
Hanneli Slabber, country manager – India, South African Tourism, said, “The stupendous response from our South African and Indian partners for the four-city roadshow held in Mumbai, Delhi, Hyderabad and Kolkata at the beginning of the year was not just encouraging but also insightful. The trends and feedback that emerged in these interactive sessions have proved valuable for our partners and us at South African Tourism to better streamline our offerings and consumer engagement. We also learned that we are on track to furthering our goals in India. We started the year with a dual goal: we want more Indians travelling to South Africa and we want them to stay longer and undertake more activities. This will help us to eventually also drive traffic to newer regions and develop a loyal repeat audience.”
Trends
South African Tourism has learned at last year’s roadshow and during the course of the year that the market is moving towards experiential travel. Additionally, South Africa has cemented its position as a mono-destination. “Both these factors contribute directly to a third trend – increased spends. A higher awareness and tendency towards South Africa’s unique experiences is resulting in a willingness to spend more to experience more. People are happy to invest in experiences. We’re delighted to say that total foreign direct spend from India has hit ZAR 1 billion,” commented Slabber.
The average number of nights spent by Indian tourists in South Africa is now at 11 days for holidays. Business travellers have notched up their stays – going from 14 to 19 days. Slabber added, “I reckon that they’re taking some time off to explore South Africa after the conclusion of their work in South Africa. VFR is at 21 days average stay and I am assuming that host and holiday-maker are holidaying within South Africa together.”
Additionally, Indian travellers are observed to have become more adventurous with activities. Bungee jumping off the Bloukrans Bridge is becoming a sought-after activity. Shark-cage diving, croc-cage diving and hot air balloon rides now feature prominently on Indian itineraries. The number of 18 to 34-year-old holiday makers has increased over last year and more than 50 per cent of the holiday traffic is younger than 44.
Slabber elaborated, “Experiments with food have continued surge beyond demand for authentic, local cuisine to also include boma dinners and visits to local vineyards complete with pairing-focused meals. This, alongside, fairly widespread availability of vegetarian food coupled with understanding of Indian culinary requirements has further propelled destination South Africa’s equity in the holiday consideration set for Indians. Another interesting fact that has emerged is that we’re seeing a growth in lesser visited provinces like Mpumalanga and North West. This definitely points to a more explorer mindset – a lot of these are most likely repeat visitors.”
“The Airbnb story is also working out positively for SA. While we’re witnessing an increase in the used of paid accommodations, we’re also seeing a lot of interest and demand for self-catering. This indicates a growth in independent explorers. We invest in and conduct research on the India market continuously.”
During 2016, South African Tourism’s research on the India merket revealed:
- Africa’s perception scores have improved over the previous wave held six months earlier
- Perception scores for ‘affordability’, ‘suitability’ and ‘trajectory’ have increased slightly
- Opportunity to experience the natural attractions continues to be a driving factor, but other aspects have seen a leap forward: people are now also seeing South Africa as offering an authentic experience, as welcoming, adventurous, enriching and varied
- When asked about various questions about their awareness, likeliness to seek/ not seek information, never visited/ recently visited/ plan to go etc, ‘likelihood to seek information’ and ‘recent visitation’ registered the maximum increase
- Over the last two years, there has been nearly 30 per cent increase in average spend
- There is also a development from Tier II markets. With an office in Mumbai, a few years ago most of the arrivals came from Mumbai, but now South Africa is seeing more geographical scope. Today, Mumbai stands at about 40 per cent, Delhi at 30 per cent and markets like Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad and Kolkata are showing between five per cent and seven per cent contribution. Amritsar, Chandigarh, Ludhiana, Vadodara and Pune are also starting to show up on the graphs
Incentive
We recognize that much of the market’s evolution has emerged, thanks to working strongly with the travel trade. South Africa is still fairly new and exciting for the Indian traveler and as such travel agents enjoy more dependency for itineraries, packages and eventually bookings. During 2016, SAT India launched Chalo South Africa, a portal designed for our SA Specialists to feature and promote their best packages at no additional cost while being authenticated and promoted by South African Tourism. We’re going out of our way to support and incentivize the travel trade. Another example of this is the ‘Fastest 50’ Campaign which will culminate with 20 top-selling trade partners winning an all-expense paid trip to South Africa in February 2017. Additionally, there have been numerous joint marketing associations with trade partners across various regions of the country.
Brand building
In the consumer space, 2016 saw the launch of South African Tourism’s new global campaign “South Africa – wow in every moment”, inviting more travellers to the destination. Travellers and travel agents will soon be able to get a look at what 24 hours of experience in South Africa will look like – a new and improved website that will revolve around the “wow” theme.
2017 forecast
Targets: South African Tourism is hoping to achieve a 10 per cent increase over last year’s arrivals and continue to draw over 100,000 Indians in 2017.
Infrastructure: Presently, a major part of Indians are using Air Seychelles to fly to South Africa via Mahe. South African Tourism’s sources indicate that an additional flight to Durban is likely to be announced soon, starting March next year. Ethiopian Airlines added Cape Town last year.
Speaking about events and activities, Slabber said, “We will, as we do annually, set the pace for the year with our four-city roadshow in January. We are tremendously excited about re-connecting with all our trade partners in Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai and Bengaluru. The upcoming edition of the roadshow already has nearly 60 registered suppliers coming in from South Africa.”
Brand building: South African Tourism’s focus for the year will be enhancing its “South Africa – wow in every moment” campaign through consumer and trade engagement across India. “Also on the cards is the launch of a Facebook page, especially for India which will help travellers get a better virtual feel of the destination thus converting intent to travel. Posts and content on this page will be tailored to suit the India market’s aspirations and ideas of a perfect holiday,” informs Slabber.
A host of on-ground consumer events and a push for awareness, education and demand in the consumer space is likely to translate into increased queries for South Africa.
The ZAR has seen a devaluation and since the SA product quote comes in ZAR, instead of USD, Indian travellers were able to buy more experiences and activities for less money. From the agent’s perspective, they are said to be able to offer comparatively better deals to travellers.
