South Africa sees 27% jump in Indian tourists till Q3 2016

Amid a gloomy travel outlook last year, South Africa witnessed 27 per cent growth in arrivals of Indian tourists till the third quarter at 81,429 compared to the same period in 2015.

South Africa hosted around 64,117 Indian travellers in their country till third quarter of 2015, according to data from South African Tourism.

"We will aim at surpassing our achievements during 2016 and we look forward to setting up new benchmarks internally as well as in the industry. We're hoping to achieve a 10 per cent increase over last year's arrivals and to ensure that we continue to draw in over 1,00,000 Indians in the coming year," South African Tourism - India - country manager Hanneli Slabber told PTI here.
 

Indians are also among the top spenders in South Africa with an average spend of Rs 590,000 per traveller.

"Overall spends from India crossed ZAR (South Africa Rand) 1,100,000,000 by the end of the third quarter and average spend per leisure traveller was placed at Rs 5,90,000 (about ZAR 150,000) indicating that South Africa attracts a variety of pocket-sizes," Slabber said.

"India is a critical market for us being the number 8 global source market for South Africa and we want to sustain this growth and also attract return travellers. Going forward, we are going to focus on increasing the geographical scope of the market - our biggest sources are Mumbai and Delhi, followed by Bengaluru and Chennai," she added.

The UK, Germany and US are the top three source markets of South Africa.

Average number of nights spent by Indian tourists in South Africa is now at 11 days for holidays and 19 days for business travellers, Slabber added.

There has been a marked shift from seeing to experiencing among Indian travellers, which has emerged from the fact that they are now looking for more qualitative experiences in South Africa, also more exploratory in nature rather than touristy, she said.

Indians are signing up for adventurous activities like the world's highest bridge bungee, shark-cage diving and skydiving, idyllic experiences like Boma dinners and tours of vineyards and an interest in history, culture, local lifestyle and wild-life experiences, she said.

"Indians are becoming aware of their personal tastes and often even within a family or group, there are multiple preferences. This results in repeat visitors by reminding them that there is so much more to see, feel, taste and experience in South Africa," Slabber added.