South African Tourism Re-affirms Commitment to Nigeria
Growing Nigerian tourism market share and using South African business travel and leisure as draw cardsSA Tourism re-affirms its commitment to the Nigerian market through its renewed strategy in meeting Nigerian tourists’ needs.
This is according to SA Tourism Regional Director for Africa and Domestic, Phumi Dhlomo.
SA Tourism tourists’ arrivals statistics from January to August 2010 indicate that an impressive number of 30, 024 Nigerians have so far visited South Africa for both leisure and business purposes as compared to 27, 693 for last year during the same period.
He explained while the official overall 2010 statistics are not currently available, “we are optimistic that the record will surpass that of 2009 as the growth trend between January to August 2009 and January to August 2010 increased by 8.4%”.
“This development validates SA Tourism marketing efforts in Nigeria as a core market and motivates our increased commitment and investment in Nigeria,” Dhlomo said.
In solidarity with SA Tourism, the SA High Commission in Nigeria has stated that the challenges relating to the issuing of Visas are high on the Embassy’s agenda and it’s doing its best to resolve the issue. Different options have been explored and the commission assures Nigerians that all the visa acquisition challenges would be resolved in due course.
As part of its ongoing commitment, the new SA Tourism global marketing campaign called ‘20 experiences in 10 days’, features a Nigerian couple, Seun and Abimbola Somolu – along with other couples from the UK, US and India – in a once-in-a- lifetime 10 days experience to explore the diverse wonders of South Africa. Currently, the campaign is being broadcast on SA Tourism’s global media partners CNN, BBC, and SKY.
For the Nigerian market the television programmes Moments with Mo and Studio 53 Extra on DSTV, were chosen specifically to communicate the splendour of South Africa through ’20 experiences in 10 days’. Future plans are to extend this media reach to include African Independent Television (AIT) and Nigerian Television Authority (NTA).
Mr Aaron Munetsi, Head of Africa, South African Airways, has come out in support of the South African Tourism’s commitment to the Nigerian market. The airline is now offering local cuisine and in-flight entertainment onboard its new Airbus A340-300 on the Lagos-Johannesburg route. Munetsi said that the airline is fully committed to upgrading its ground and on-board service offerings to travellers.
Dhlomo said the recently signed joint marketing agreement (JMA) between SA Tourism and five leading outbound tour operators in Nigeria is a further demonstration of its efforts to increase tourism arrivals into South Africa from Nigeria. The partners are Tour Brokers International, World ‘N’ Traveland, TTL Tours, Tourways International and Abuja-based CGSK Tours.
The JMAs will improve the credibility ratings of the partner agencies. It links their agencies with reliability, quality and customer satisfaction, with minimal up -front costs and quicker results than other traditional advertising methods. Consumers will also benefit from having their all-inclusive travel package handled by professionals who will guarantee them better rates, hassle-free arrangement and ensure their safety and security.
“These JMAs are a mutual joint venture platform for the development of tourism in Nigeria and South Africa,” said Dhlomo, “and will no doubt benefit the tourism sectors and economies of both countries.”
This article was originally posted on Africa Travel - Tourism
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