South Africa tourism recent roadshow in India was very successfully attended, with a total of 1 235 attendees at workshops hosted in Kolkata, Chennai, Delhi, and Mumbai.

Slabber is excited about the upcoming year, saying that last year travel from India was affected by the Indian rupee depreciating against the dollar. She added that while travel from India to South Africa had increased last year, South Africa Tourism would have liked to see greater numbers.

South Africa Tourism has been working extensively with the former cricketer, Jonty Rhodes, to promote the country to the Indian market. “[Rhodes] is very popular in India and being the fielding coach of the Mumbai Indians – the current IPL champs – helps to keep his profile very high,” said Slabber. “Last year we did a very successful consumer campaign where four lucky winners won a trip to South Africa – hosted by Jonty – and it was turned into a television series.” She added that material from the campaign was also used in cinema and television campaigns. South Africa Tourism will repeat the competition this year and also has other joint marketing campaigns planned.

Slabber said South Africa Tourism planned to aggressively market South Africa as a film destination. “Film in India – and not only Bollywood – is absolutely massive and an incredible way to raise awareness of South Africa.” She used the example of Mountain of the Moon, a Bengali movie filmed in South Africa, which showcased the beautiful scenery of the country.

According to Slabber, advertising, film shoots brought large crews into South Africa for extended periods. “They use restaurants, are great at taking part in activities and of course splash it all over social media.” She added that Fear Factors had just been confirmed for South Africa. “We have had numerous products making suggestions on how we can make this the scariest season ever.”

It should be noted that South Africa is one of the African developed countries. To that note, however, it has developed infrastructures like good roads, Hotels, lodges among others. Such improvement has attracted tourists to have their vacations in this country.

More so, the country is strategically located near the seas which ease the transportation of tourists from different nations and back. South Africa is also known for its large surface and to that note, it is eligible of hosting a variety of tourist attractions.