ASIAN tourism markets to South Africa are growing well on the back of South African Tourism’s new ‘Leave Ordinary Behind’ campaign, which has been very well received, says Bradley Brouwer, South African Tourism’s regional manager Asia Pacific.

He told a tourism trade seminar in Cape Town that China held great growth potential for South Africa. “Last year, China became the fastest growing Asian market to South Africa, with 68 309 Chinese visiting the country. It’s going to become a core market for South Africa!” He said Chinese arrivals to South Africa had increased by 62,3% in 2010-2011 and by another 17,1% between January and June 2011.  Accelerated growth was expected with the new direct South African Airways flight between Johannesburg and Beijing. “We anticipate that we’ll reach 80 000 Chinese visitors by March 2012, doubling 2008 arrivals,” he said.  “There are 690 000 billionaires in China! There is big money there! You can make very good business out of China if you’re prepared to make allowances for the cultural differences and nuances!”

Brouwer said the devastating tsunami in Japan had had little impact on tourism and travel from Japan to South Africa, even though arrivals fell by 13,6% in March, the month it happened. However, in total, Japanese arrivals grew by 34,4% from 20 513 to 27 577 between 2009 and 2010. Growth of 12,3% was recorded between January and May 2011, representing 8 550 arrivals.

The ‘Leave Ordinary Behind’ campaign was introduced at annual travel trade road shows in China, Japan and South Korea in June. More than 30 SA exhibitors and 600 trade/media representatives attended the workshops in Beijing and Guangzhou; 29 SA exhibitors and 250 trade/media representatives attended the workshops in Osaka and Tokyo; and 17 SA exhibitors and 109 trade/media representatives participated in a workshop in Seoul.

SAT’s activities in China included regular media and trade fam tours; joint media and trade promotions; the signing of JMA partnerships in Hong Kong and China; the launch of the ‘Tribe Leader Competition’ for the travel trade; advertising campaigns on Chinese buses, billboards and metros; prominent trade industry events, trade shows and media interviews; the launch of the ‘SA! SA! Book’ where Hong Kong and Chinese celebrities told of their travels to South Africa; marketing campaigns across China; plus the launch of an SAT Chinese website and a Facebook Fan Page.  Brouwer said the ‘20 Experiences in 10 Days’ campaign had been very successful in China. The Chinese couple who came on a free two-week holiday to South Africa became celebrities in China. Similarly, mass media coverage was generated when Chinese singer, Karen Mok, joined a fam tour and when Hong Kong musician, Hanjin Tan, performed at the Cape Town International Jazz Festival. The first SA-branded JMA outlet was opened in Beijing through UTour.

Brouwer said SAT Japan and 140 SA exhibitors had attended the JATA Travel Showcase in Tokyo, Japan’s largest consumer travel fair. The ‘10 Experiences in 10 Days for Japanese!’ campaign was launched on the SAT Japanese website in October. SAT also did a web tie-up with 4travel, the most popular Japanese travel website used by 3,8m Japanese. A South African travel guidebook was published by the Japanese website ‘Rurubu’.

Next, the focus in Japan would be on getting MICE business, after the first MICE trip to SA was sold in 2011. Also on the diary next year are the launch of the ‘My South Africa Story’ campaign; the hosting of Japanese media; seminars and short itineraries with trade partners.

Brouwer said SAT in 2011 had also hosted South Korean travel media and conducted trade educationals there. Upcoming activities in South Korea included the launch of the South African travel guidebook in that market.  HANATOUR, South Korea’s largest travel agency, was set to launch an online and SMS campaign on South Africa.