South Africa aims to become one of the world’s top 20 tourism destinations by 2020, the country’s minister of tourism, Marthinus van Schalkwyk, said at a press luncheon held in New York on April 15.
Business and leisure tourism is a major focus for the South African government, van Schalkwyk said. “It is by far fastest growing segment our economy — 9.6 percent — and we intend that to be in the double digits soon,” he added.
To reach that goal, he said, the country will have to show both business and leisure travelers that the country has much more to offer than just the safaris for which it is famous.
“We have to transform South Africa from a safari destination,” van Schalkwyk said in a interview by CNN anchor Soledad O’Brien, herself a recent visitor to South Africa. This means focusing on business tourism and emerging markets among other strategies, van Schalkwyk added. North America, however, will not be ignored, he adds, noting that the number of visitors from North America increased by 12.6 percent last year. The marketing budget for this region will also increase.
International Convention Centre, Cape Town.
Van Schalkwyk, however, acknowledges that more than just marketing is required. “Infrastructure is a huge challenge, and we have invested heavily in the last few years, and have $92.9 billion that is being invested over the next three years,” van Schalkwyk said. That is in addition to what was spent to host the FIFA World Cup in 2010. “That was the first time ever that Africa hosted such major event,” he said. We showed the world we can also do it.”
In February, South Africa introduced a new bill that will overhaul the entire national legislative framework for the management of tourism in the country, creating rules that are enforceable and applicable across the board, van Schalkwyk said.
The bill’s key objectives are to accomplish the following:
•Promote the practice of responsible tourism
•Provide for the effective marketing of South Africa domestically and internationally
•Promote quality tourism products and services
•Encourage growth and development in the sector
•Advance effective intergovernmental relations in developing and managing tourism.
Sandton Convention Centre, Johannesburg.
More specifically, the legislation also provides for the continuation of the year-old South Africa National Convention Bureau (NCB) and calls for the establishment of a Tourism Grading Council of South Africa, which is responsible for quality assurance of tourism products, services, and facilities.
A New Group Travel Focus
On the group travel front, the country’s most important investment may be the launch of the NCB in April 2012. The creation of a full-fledged convention bureau, “tells planners that you can have confidence that we make sure that your meeting is successful and that you will have outcomes you are planning to have,” Amanda Kotze-Nhlapo, executive manager of the new NCB, told Incentive (www.incentivemag.com) at IMEX America last October. “It’s a can-do attitude … it will be easy to hold your meeting. We will take the client by the hand, right from the beginning — bidding, site inspections, we will help with delegate boosting and building attendance, and of course on-site event services.”
Among the new resources being applied to the group travel market is coordination, she said. “There is a coordinating council that all our CVBs are part of,” she said. “We have an ambassador program. Planners have one point of contact, which saves money. We can help with bidding, delegate boosting, right through to the end of the program. Planners have to understand that we cannot put money on the table, we cannot do national bid-offs, but we help coordinate between destinations in South Africa. We work together.”
Incentives Remain a Key Focus
Even as the country hopes to expand travelers’ perceptions of it as merely a safari destination, South Africa isn’t turning its back on the safari market, which attracts both incentive business travelers as well as leisure tourists.
In fact, South Africa Tourism’s newly launched tourism campaign builds on the theme of the “Big Five” game animals — the lion, African elephant, Cape buffalo, leopard, and rhinoceros. The campaign, which launches publicly on television’s “All-Star Celebrity Apprentice” next week, is called “What’s Your Big 5?” and focuses on the many other experiences travellers can have in South Africa beyond safaris. “It is our way of showcasing the rest of South Africa,” van Schalkwyk said.
On the group business travel side, safaris remain a key attraction for corporate incentive groups, which the NCB considers to be one of its most important markets. After the association market, the group incentive travel market is the NCB’s main area of focus, Kotze-Nhlapp said.
“The most important thing is to go after incentives,” she said. “We are developing marketing and packages that speak to incentive houses’ needs. In the past, we have sold them like leisure tourism — the beauty, the wildlife — but adapted to incentives. It is very easy to come and have motivational stories. We have the right itineraries and the right programs.”