South African Tourism is delighted by the huge success of World Cup 2010 in South Africa (nán fēi, 南非)

It’s figures reported that the tournament boosted visitor numbers by 25% from 1 June to 1 July in 2010 compared with the same period in the previous year.

According to figures released by the Department of Home Affairs of South Africa, a total 1,020,321 visitors visited the ‘Rainbow Country’ during the month, clearly demonstrating the tremendous pulling power of the World Cup.

From January to October 2010, 55,874 Chinese travelers visited South Africa, an increase of 65.5% compared with the same period in 2009, making China the fastest growing market in Asia for tourists visiting the country.

“The success of the World Cup 2010 presented a colourful South Africa to the world and further enhanced South Africa’s brand internationally,” said Mr. Bradley Brouwer, Regional Manager: Asia Pacific, South African Tourism (SAT). “In 2011, SAT will enter a new era and look to ride on the tremendous growth experienced in 2010 by continuing to explore more diversified cooperation with media and trade partners making South Africa an even more attractive destination for travelers.”

South Africa rakes in awards in China

Last year, South Africa received many awards from media and trade partners in China, including the “Year’s Most Influential Tourism Destination”, “The Most Popular Long-haul Destination” and “Top 10 Overseas Destinations”.

SAT recently held a roadshow that visited Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu and Guangzhou, with the theme of “Leave Ordinary Behind and Enjoy the Green South Africa”, to further promote the Rainbow Country as a preferred tourist destination for Chinese travelers.

SAT also embarked on a series of marketing activities using the “Leave Ordinary Behind” theme to enhance the profile of South Africa following the huge success of the World Cup where the country extended a hand of friendship to visitors from all over the world.

‘Reality tourism’

Last November, SAT launched a “20 Experiences in 10 Days” casting campaign organised by Rapid Blue, a professional TV production company from South Africa. This promotion seeks to find a couple from China to travel around South Africa while being trailed by Rapid Blue’s cameras that will record all the fantastic sights experienced along the way. Following this, a TV commercial will be produced for broadcasting internationally.

A four-month sales campaign was also recently launched targeting travel agents to promote South Africa.

The five sales agents that generate the most sales will receive an award from SAT.

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Do you remember this classic Douglas Green advert from waaay back in the days?

(OK… they were Japanese tourists, but I’m sure enjoyed it!)

Leveraging the state visit of President Jacob Zuma, South African Tourism‘s China office held “The Tourism Round Table Activation” event on 24 August 2010 in Beijing.

Marthinus Van Schalkwyk, South Africa’s Minister of Tourism highlighted to key industry stakeholders the successes and lessons derived from hosting the 2010 World Cup event and the tourism focus beyond the tournament.

More than 100 tour operators, travel and lifestyle media and executives from multinational companies across China were invited.

The visit of President Zuma highlights the strengthening cooperation between the two nations including the signing of a new Comprehensive Strategic Partnership aimed at deepening and broadening bilateral relations. The visit also demonstrates the importance that South Africa attaches to its political, economic and cultural relationship with China.

South Africa’s trade relations with China have expanded dramatically in recent years, with China becoming South Africa’s largest export destination by market since the start of 2009. China remains South Africa’s largest partner with regard to imports. Trade and tourism are often closely correlated.

“The World Cup was a phenomenal success and positioned South Africa to the world as a capable, friendly, welcoming, exciting nation and hence a great place to visit. Many people understand that South Africa has become a globally noteworthy destination for leisure, business and big event tourism,” said Minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk.

Minister Van Schalkwyk

He added: “South African Tourism is confident that it will attract 10 million foreign visitors in 2010. The 2010 FIFA World Cup will contribute to this number, but will not be the sole driver of arrivals. Excellent service and a welcoming attitude enriches the diversity of our tourist offerings and enhances the experience of being a tourist in South Africa.”

The world-renowned STAR grading has been introduced in South Africa, lead by The Tourism Grading Council of South Africa (TGCSA). TGCSA is a business unit of South African Tourism, responsible for the administration of the STAR grading, and is the only officially recognized organization that authorizes accommodation establishments to display Quality Stars.

There are over 8,000 star graded establishments in South Africa. Travel to South Africa to experience quality and cost effective leisure and business accommodation facilities, providing a “Home-Away-From-Home” experience with world-class conferencing facilities for the visitors in South Africa.

“China is definitely a very important source market for South African Tourism, ” said Mr Bradley Brouwer, Regional Manager:Asia Pacific, South African Tourism.

SA Tourism’s Bradley Brouwer

“China arrivals to South Africa totaled 45,326 from January to December 2009 which was a 12.4% increase compared to 2008. China arrivals numbered 18,928 from January to April 2010 and it represented a 40.2% increase compared to the same period in 2009. In 2010, China became one of the fastest growing overseas markets for South Africa in Asia. South Africa is still quite a new travel destination to the Chinese people. So we see the Chinese market as having great potential.”

2010 is a critical year for both South Africa and China. South Africa hosted the FIFA World Cup and China is currently hosting the World Expo in Shanghai – both global events. The target of the South African Pavilion in the Shanghai Expo was to welcome 10 million visitors during the whole 184-day Expo duration, which has been achieved in only 88-days.

The Expo as a whole has attracted over 100 million visitors.

The South African Pavilion at the World Expo, Shanghai. Read more about the Pavilion here

Images from the recent Tourism Workshop in Hong Kong:

One Sunday afternoon, Howzit-HongKong.com attended an informative tourism workshop hosted by South African Tourism at the Park Lane Hotel in the busy shopping district of Causeway Bay.

The Hong Kong-leg is part of an aggressive travel promotion campaign across the Greater China region following a highly successful World Cup that drew an international audience of billions.

The campaign took in Shanghai and Hong Kong and at the time of writing, workshops are being conducted in Korea.  It concludes in Japan at the end of this week.

The series of workshops is targeted at the travel trade highlighting the rich and varied travel resources that the country has to offer and will be followed by other promotional activities aimed at the broader market. Forward bookings are already showing a marked pickup driven by intense media coverage of the sporting event over the past month.

More than 20 South African trade partners, including representatives from airlines, hotels, ground agents, wine associations and game reserves have taken part and provided comprehensive and in-depth information to more than 500 trade guests attending.

Jerry Khalo from the Sabi Sabi Game Reserve interacts with local service providers (Pic: Mike Jansen)

Just under one million foreign visitors have traveled to South Africa over the month of the World Cup according to new government figures and more than three million fans have attended matches, a new record.

The latest tourist arrival figures for 2010 show that more than 1.9 million (1,916,544) tourists arrived in South Africa from January to March 2010, representing a growth of 20.9% during the same period last year. Tourist arrivals were up from all major source markets, among which 21.9% are from the Asia market.

SA Tourism’s Bradley Brouwer (middle) and Minister Marthinus Van Schalkwyk meet a local service provider (Pic: Mike Jansen)

“South Africa’s tourism arrivals for the first quarter of the year exceeded our expectations, and we are confident the publicity from the World Cup will help us achieve our ambitious growth targets for 2010,” said Minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk, the Minister of Tourism, Republic of South Africa at the Hong Kong stop trade workshop.

“The successful staging of the World Cup has changed global perceptions about the country. These China trade workshops come at the right time to provide a platform to create and explore more cooperation opportunities between the trade in South Africa and China. I am convinced the championship has opened up the door to our destination to scores of new visitors, and I look forward to bringing more exciting, meaty and in-depth itineraries to Chinese travelers.”

SA Tourism Regional Manager Bradley Brouwer (Pic: Mike Jansen)

Mr. Bradley Brouwer, Regional Manager: Asia Pacific, South African Tourism, thanked all honorable guests, trade partners and media friends for their long-term support given so for to South African Tourism.

“South African Tourism Beijing Office will strengthen cooperation and communications with the trade and acquire more cooperative measures to showcase the true beauty of South Africa to Chinese travellers,” said Mr. Brouwer. “Besides the trade workshop we hold annually, we are also going to tailor more substantial and value-for-money itineraries for the Chinese market and generate word-of-mouth influence to reach out to consumers through the trade and various media channels.”

Here are some more pictures from Sunday’s SA Tourism workshop:

The national tourism agency responsible for the marketing of South Africa as a preferred tourist destination, South African Tourism today announced the appointment of  Bradley Brouwer as the new Regional Manager Asia Pacific effective 1 December 2009.

Brouwer’s appointment comes at a crucial time as South Africa gets ready to host the world’s biggest sporting event, the FIFA World Cup in 2010. 

Brouwer’s role will see him take responsibility for Japan, China, South Korea and Hong Kong where his twenty seven years experience in the tourism industry along with his passion for serving South Africa and developing our communities will stand him in good stead. He will be based in Beijing. 

Prior to this appointment Brouwer was South African Tourism’s Country Manager for Japan and South Korea from March 2007. In this role Brouwer successfully strengthened the relationship between South African Tourism and the highly influential Japanese Association of Travel Agents (JATA). In recognition of this special relationship JATA extended the relationship for a second term (never done before) with South Africa. South African Tourism’s relationship with JATA has helped increase awareness of South Africa in Japan. The special relationship has also built travel industry contacts and developed new itineraries to the country, establishing South Africa as an officially recognised destination within the Japanese travel industry. 

“Bradley’s unfailing energy in Japan has helped place South Africa on the map in a country in which, just a few years ago, South Africa barely existed. While we still face the challenges of distance and no direct flights, thanks to Bradley and his wonderful team we are slowly winning the battle in this highly lucrative market” said Evelyn Mahlaba, South African Tourism’s Regional Director for Asia & Australasia.