Delta Air Lines, in collaboration with leading Africa travel expert, GILTEDGE, recently hosted US trade partners on an exclusive ‘Relaunch South Africa’ trip.
The trip, which featured a seamless, tailor-made itinerary, took place from March 7-14 and included industry experts from Jetset World Travel, Cadence Travel, Brownell, Protravel and TripArc, who were accompanied by GILTEDGE Directors, Sean Kritzinger and Murray Gardiner, and a representative from Delta Air Lines.
The familiarisation trip was created in direct response to US travellers’ increasing demand and interest in booking holidays to South Africa, to provide trade partners with first-hand insights into the country and its extraordinary value proposition within a post-COVID world.
According to Gardiner, the US is currently positioned to be South Africa’s leading inbound international market for 2022, with even more growth on the horizon.
As part of the itinerary, guests were treated to memorable visits to some of South Africa’s best-loved and celebrated regions, including Cape Town, Paarl, Tswalu Kalahari Game Reserve and Johannesburg, as well as luxurious stays at various sought-after properties.
“GILTEDGE put together such a wonderful itinerary with hand-selected properties and thoughtful execution with their ground tour operators. The obvious highlight of the trip was experiencing a safari through the lens of Tswalu, along with swimming in False Bay,” said Meg Meyer of Cadence Travel. “Of course, travelling with Delta as our air carrier and experiencing the Delta One Suites was another highlight and, in my opinion, the best way to fly the open skies.”
“The properties were incredible. Just walking around Ellerman House and taking in the local art blew my mind. Being back on South African soil was fantastic,” commented Jill Taylor of Jetset World Travel.
“We were also really spoiled by Delta,” she added. “The flight crew was so friendly, and the Delta One Suites’ pods gave us plenty of privacy.”
Delta relaunched its Johannesburg and Atlanta flights in August last year, now operating three times per week. If all goes well, Delta also plans to operate direct flights between Atlanta and Cape Town three times weekly, starting from November 2022.
“GILTEDGE and Delta look forward to welcoming an abundance of US visitors into sunny South Africa for the remainder of the year and beyond. Together with our partners, it’s our goal and our pleasure to use our expertise to assist them in fully appreciating the country’s many delights, diversity and unmatched out-of-the-box experiences for the duration of their visit,” Gardiner concluded.
