The South African Embassy in Vietnam hosted a workshop to introduce South Africa to the local Vietnamese trade in Ho Chi Minh City on March 19.

The South African contingent were represented by SA Magic Tours, Escape to the Cape, JMT Tours, Royal Africa Discoveries, ERM Tours and Thompsons Gateway.

Terry Fenton-Wells, MD of SA Magic Tours, told Tourism Update that among those who attended were tour operators, wholesalers, media and senior government officials.

“Our people in the industry are very anxious to help promote South Africa as a destination. The Vietnamese travellers are slowly starting to travel out of south-east Asia now and we were very surprised to see how much interest there actually is,” Fenton-Wells said.

The SA Embassy gave a general overview of South Africa followed by presentations from six operators.