South Africa recently organised its annual four-city roadshow – in Chennai, Bengaluru, Delhi and Mumbai. Acknowledging that the roadshow this year has been phenomenal, Hanneli Slabber, country manager, SA Tourism India, said, “The Indian travel agents are appreciating the fact that it is so big. We have had to say no to so many South African products who wanted to come to the roadshow. We have space for only 65 products and the challenge of moving 122 people across India. In both Chennai and Bengaluru we have trippled the number of agents that we had the previous years and in Delhi we doubled up. In Mumbai also there has been significant increase in number of agents.”
There are many products that are for sale only in India, with specific permutations. For example a 90 minute canopy tour experience on zipline. “However we learned that we cannot put the same products in all cities. In Kolkata for example, we get questions on lifestyle, art galleries, while in Mumbai we get a lot of questions on adventure. So we need to design for the region,” Slabber stated, cautioning that with increase in business they have had to be careful. “We have no problem with B2B business, the only problem happens when it is B2B2B2B2B, so the traveller pays a lakh for the holiday, when on the ground it is Rs 40,000, then you start running into for value for money issue as the traveller is expecting a holiday of one lakh,” she pointed out. The roadshow provides quality guarantees to the travel agents. There is a significant amount of interest from the younger generation to travel to South Africa. The accommodation options are also accordingly suitable for their budget and requirement. “They do not need to stay in a five star and that is the kind of education that Indian travel agents need to be given. Over 50 per cent of business is incentive travel,”mentioned Slabber.
South Africa faced a lot of problem last year with availability and capacity specifically with Cape Town over December. Almost 70 per cent of Indian travellers book less than a month in advance, while other markets do their booking much earlier. A lot of business has been pushed out of the main cities, which are now used as gateways and the roadshow witnessed focus on destinations like Oudtshoorn which has 150 activities in the region. With accommodation also costing much less, the emerging destinations are ideal for Indian travellers.