South African Tourism launches inaugural roadshow in the Nordics

TThe Nordic region – namely Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Norway have grown in prominence in terms of the value and volume they present, contributing over sixty thousand arrivals to South Africa between January and July this year. The tourism arrivals potential yielded by this region will contribute to South African Tourism reaching its strategic “5 in 5” goal which is to attract five million more tourists in and around to South Africa in the next five years.

“Our organisation spent a considerable amount of time over the past year reviewing our strategy, using research-driven analytics and insights to come up with a Marketing Investment Framework. Following this, we took a strategic decision to allocate additional budget towards further trade driven solutions with consumer reach and impact equipping members of the trade to adequately sell South Africa as a world-class tourism destination,” says South African Tourism Chief Operating Officer, Ms Sthembiso Dlamini.

South African Tourism’s strategy for the Nordics is largely based on smart, results-driven partnerships both with South African trade as well as in market, while ensuring that the introduction of new consumer relevant players is facilitated in the region. This goal is consistent throughout all activities planned for 2017 and 2018. The first of these projects commences this week, as South African Tourism takes 20 South African suppliers to the Nordics for the inaugural roadshow. Starting in Copenhagen today, and covering the cities of Oslo, Stockholm and Helsinki, the roadshow will end on the 26^th of October 2017.

The roadshow coincides with the recent announcement that South Africa won its first award from the Nordics region - coming second in the vote for “Best Travel Destination Outside Europe” at the Danish Travel Awards. The USA came first and Thailand third.

To be awarded this accolade and to be mentioned in the top three with two other markets who are dominant forces in their own right, is confirmation that South Africa definitely has the offerings that tourists want,” says Dlamini.

Following this roadshow, will be a mega -familiarisation trip bringing a large number of Nordic agents to South Africa. In the true spirit of collaborations and partnerships, this familiarisation trip will be a collaboration between South African Tourism, South African Airways and Destination Marketing Companies (DMCs) that have historically serviced and invested in the market. Additional details regarding this trip will be provided in greater detail November, as plans are currently underway.

Note to Editors:

January to July 2017 Tourist Arrivals from the Nordics markets:

• Denmark – 17,392 - this is a 7.4% increase compared to the same period last year
• Finland – 5,454 – this is a 10.6% increase compared to the same period last year
• Norway – 11,514 - this is an almost 1% increase compared to the same period last year
• Sweden – 25,996 - this is a 16% when compared to the same period last year.