South Africa eyes Bangalore tourists

Having succeeded in luring the upmarket MICE (meetings, incentives, conference and exhibition) clients from Mumbai and Delhi, South African Tourism is now seeking to woo the IT companies located in the south, especially from Bangalore and Chennai.

The South African Tourism has come to Bangalore with its biggest contingent of travel and hotel representatives ever to spread the message of the country's tourism potential.

In all, 32 representatives of the South African travel and hotel industry are here to interact with over 1,200 Indian representatives from the travel and tourism sector. "We got fantastic response to the workshop held last year in Goa. This prompted us again to exhibit the region's (South Africa) potential as an upmarket tourist destination in India," said Medha Sampat, trade relations manager of South African Tourism.

"As part of the upmarket MICE, South African Tourism has been able to facilitate trips for companies like Standard Chartered and ICICI Prudential from Mumbai and Delhi," she added.

The board interacted with Inox Theatre, Shoppers' Stop, Barrista Coffee and Cafe Coffee Day to promote South Africa as a brand.

In 2004-05, 36,000 people from India visited South Africa. Of this, FIT (frequent international traveller) and leisure segments constituted the bulk. During the last two years MICE has picked up many prominent clients, added Sampat.

Connectivity is the major issue in boosting tourist traffic. Presently, South Africa is connected with daily flights (post-April four days a week) of South African Airways from Mumbai.

"South African Tourism also plans promotions through other routes operated by carriers like Gulf Airways, Etihad, Qatar Airways, Air Mauritius and Kenya Airways," she said.