The perception of South Africa as a secure destination, along with favourable currency exchange, is encouraging to the Nordic market, which, for the first four months of 2016 recorded increased South African tourist arrivals.

According to figures released by Statistics South Africa for the first quarter of this year, arrivals from Denmark were up 12.36% and Sweden 14.97%. Norway showed a decrease of 6.49% and statistics for Finland were not individually recorded by the bureau.

From Copenhagen, Patrick Menzies, SAA’s Manager – Sales and Marketing for Scandinavia, Finland & Baltics, reports a 12,6% increase for the four countries from January-April, with concomitant increases in the airline’s passengers. “However, without the unabridged birth certificate issue, one could speculate if this increase would have been higher,” he says.

Menzies points out that in 2015, South Africa was the region’s sixth most popular long-haul destination, although with just under 90 000 tourists, it trailed well behind the USA which attracted almost a million Nordic travellers, and Thailand with 750 000. “The serious expansion of Norwegian Airlines’ non-stop long haul offering to the US, coupled with a good selection of other long-haul non-stop services, determines the travel pattern of the general public,” he says.

Reviewing Africa-bound figures in general, Nordic operators differ on whether the number of Nordic arrivals is genuinely increasing, or just redistributing so that South Africa is currently riding the crest of the wave. Per Caroe, Country Manager Nordic and Baltic for Kenya Airways, based in Copenhagen, says the swing towards South Africa is “probably mostly a shift between African countries, rather than organic growth”. Nordic travel specialist, Carlos Leite-Ferraz of Credo Travel Marketing in Finland, says tourist numbers to Africa are consistent, but right now travel to Kenya is “a bit down and South Africa is up”.

Operators also differ on the question of Nordic travellers’ sensitivity to security threats. Pernilla Landstedt, Director/Partner of Propel Africa Destination Management, based in Cape Town, says: “The Nordic travellers seem to continue travelling all over the world despite the different threats in the world.”  Leite-Ferraz agrees: “The Nordics are very consistent. In fact, during the tough months of Ebola the market was actually very stable and consistent.”

Caroe, however, says Nordics do tend to over-react to incidents. The attacks in Paris and Brussels have had a negative impact on those countries as destination choices, as has terror in Turkey. “It is common that, if people feel insecure, they prefer to stay home or go to places they know well.”

Suzanne Benadie, Sales and Marketing Director of Your Africa in Johannesburg, says some aspects of South Africa, such as crime, do concern potential Scandinavian travellers. However, overall, Southern Africa is seen as safe, although getting the message across is often complicated by the perception that Africa is one country.

Says Caroe: “A big and general challenge is to teach Europeans/Scandinavians that Africa is a continent with 54 countries.” Nordic travellers hearing of incidents in strife-torn countries such as South Sudan, Burundi or Mali, do not always differentiate these locations from the rest of Africa.

Rune Engstrøm, Director of Destination Africa in Norway, echoes the point: “Lots of people see Africa as one place. They hear about crime and so on, but when you get a chance to talk, they understand fast that 99% of tourist destinations, especially in Southern Africa, are very safe.”

With the rand at low levels, South Africa has extra appeal for the Scandinavian market.  “SA is seen as great value and in my opinion this has had a knock-on effect to surrounding countries,” comments Leite-Ferraz. “The countries that are US dollar-priced are seeing the mid-market pull away from them as the Nordic countries that have currencies affected by the dollar (Norway and Sweden) feel their package prices increase substantially due to the currency exchange – in some cases by over 20% in the last year.”

Climate is, of course, another attraction for the Nordic countries, which endure long, dark winters.  “Travel mostly takes place in the European winter season, between November and March. A very big factor for the Nordics is the chance to go to warm and sunny destinations,” says Benadie.

Rung Button, Sales and Operations Director of International Travel and Tours in Durban, believes that while numbers are looking good, they could be even more so should SA Tourism put more emphasis on the Nordic region.  “We have seen a 50% growth from Sweden compared with last year, but lack of marketing by SA Tourism and lack of focus on the Nordics as important markets is a challenge. For example, we find that Nordics are reluctant to self-drive, probably due to a lack of knowledge of our roads and conditions. And yet the German market, where SA Tourism has been marketing for years, is a solid self-drive market.” She believes that a large growth opportunity exists in the Nordic countries, provided marketing spend is channelled accordingly by SA Tourism.