South African Tourism Wins Two Awards at ITB China 2019

SSouth African Tourism has received the honor of winning two individual awards at this year’s ITB China 2019, a three-day B2B travel exhibition exclusively focused on the Outbound Chinese Travel Market which took place on 15 to 17 May at the Shanghai World Expo Exhibition and Convention Center.

Two awards included The Gold Award of CTW Chinese Tourist Welcome Award in the Internet/Media Category; and The Top 10 Amazing Travel Experiences of the Year – Enjoy gourmet in South Africa. At the scene, key attendees included David Axiotis, General Manager of ITB China; and Xiao Yi, Found and CEO of Qyer.com.

The CTW Awards, being organised by China Outbound Tourism Research Institute (COTRI) for the 16th time this year, celebrates best practice solutions on how to attract and satisfy Chinese visitors around the world, this year The CTW Award is a partnership again with the largest Chinese Online Travel Agency – Ctrip.

The IT’S MY WORLD TRAVEL AWARD 2019 is organised in cooperation with Qyer.com, it recognises innovative tourism destinations, organisations and businesses that present the latest outbound travel trends of Chinese travelers and that are driving the positive transformation of the tourism industry. As the most authoritative and pioneering travel list in China, the IT’S MY WORLD TRAVEL AWARD list has become a bellwether of the tourism industry since its successful launch in 2018.

With the popularity and maturity of travel, sightseeing travel is no longer the first choice for tourists, and more travelers choose to try in-depth and personalised travel experience. South Africa is a place of adventure, dreams and memories. Besides dense lush tropical rain forests and primitive rough customs, South Africa also has unique African cuisine with a wide variety of local and international cuisine offerings. Flavourings from different regions and various traditional and innovative cooking methods have made South Africa a kaleidoscope of food flavors, worthy of the reputation of "rainbow nation".

“We are extremely honored and proud to be recognized with these two great awards this year at ITB China 2019,” said Mr. Mansoor Mohamed, Asia Pacific Hub Head of South African Tourism. “As South Africa continues to welcome Chinese travelers with open arms, we also strive to share our Rainbow Nation’s abundant, diverse, world class and authentic experiences and attractions to those who visit.”

South African Tourism is the tourism marketing arm of the South African government, and promotes the country domestically and internationally for leisure, business, meetings, incentives, conferences and events tourism. In 2018, the integrated project with DJI and Cathay Pacific Airlines launched with the airline’s inaugural seasonal flights to Cape Town during the year of Nelson Mandela’s centennial. This initiative also combined this great figure’s recognition among Chinese tourists with South Africa’s cultural heritage, bringing these experiences, attractions, and destinations that have strong historical and social ties to Mandela's life to audiences. Madiba's Journey APP and the concept of “100 ways to find Madiba in you” allows tourists to easily access locations, things to do, where to eat, and more information and stories with other people.

As a premium and appealing destination with open, diverse, accredited, and best-in-class attractions, consistently seeing a tourism boom from China, South Africa and its array of tourism resources are promoted by South African Tourism. Arrivals to the country from China in 2018 was 97,136, amounting to an average of 8,095 arrivals per month. In January 2019, there was a jump of 22% over January 2018. SA Tourism China is expecting the growth trend to continue with a minimum, 10% increase in arrivals over 2018.

2019 marks an enriched development and planning of South African Tourism with its Chinese partners and audiences, aiming to reach target audiences by launching a more vivid and memorable theme – Wild Authentic South Africa. With China’s millennial generation increasingly searching for unique and immersive experiences that are not so mainstream, South African Tourism hopes to strike a chord with current trendy technology that enables ease of information access though mobile Apps.

South African Airways also plans to launch a direct service between Guangzhou and Johannesburg on 18 September 2019, providing this well-known South African city with its first non-stop flights from Asia, making the trip easy for more Chinese visitors.

In addition, more Chinese travel agents will be involved with organizing visits to South Africa to facilitate on-the-ground travel packages and tours.

Visa facilitation centers have also extended to 11 Chinese cities – Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Chengdu, Xian, Shenyang, Wuhan, Jinan, Hangzhou, Kunming and Chongqing – making travel more seamless from China.

For further information, please visit South African Tourism’s Chinese official website: www.southafricantourism.cn

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South African Tourism is the national tourism agency responsible for the marketing of South Africa as a preferred tourist destination. It is headed up by Acting Chief Executive Officer Ms. Sthembiso Dlamini.