South Africa is targeting to receive one lakh Indian tourists this year, including over 8,500 visitors from Kerala, Ms Hanneli Slabber, Country Manager, South African Tourism, has said.
There has been a jump of 26.2 per cent in Indian arrivals with a total of 90,367 during the calendar year 2011. Over the years, South Africa has been receiving huge number of tourists from India, she said.
According to latest reports, Indian tourist arrival figure for January-February 2012 has gone up by 18 per cent, wherein a total of 14,001 Indians visited South Africa compared with 11,864 for the corresponding period in 2011. About 6,805 tourists visited South Africa in February, up 24.9 per cent compared to 5,449 visitors in February last year.
Last year, 5,000 tourists from Kerala visited South Africa, and this year at least 8,500 visitors are expected from this State, she told reporters at a road show organised here.
South Africa Tourism has also launched a programme ‘Learn South Africa', which aims to train travel professionals to promote, plan and organise attractive packages to South Africa as per their client's varied interests.
The success and feedback received over the past two years about the programme encouraged South African Tourism to not only further improve the method of training but also extend the training programme to 30 cities across India this year compared to 14 cities last year, she said.
“Over the years, we have been receiving huge number of tourists from India, making this country one of our core focus markets for growth. Keeping the growth potential in mind, we will continue investing in training our trade partners to create profitable partnerships that can only benefit the consumer in the long run”, she said.
South African Tourism will be launching a book on vegetarian, vegan and Jain dining in South Africa. Targeted at the Indian tourist who has special food requirements, the book will be a guide to them to try out their favourite food at particular restaurants in South Africa, she said.