THE number of incentive travel agents in China is increasing as the Chinese economy continues to grow along with outbound travel, says South African Tourism regional manager Asia Pacific, Bradley Brouwer.  

He says corporate meetings and incentives represent a substantial new opportunity for South Africa to attract Chinese visitors, aided by South African Airways’ new daily flights between Johannesburg and Beijing. He says rising income levels and standards of living and the opening up of travel visa restrictions are driving China’s fast-growing outbound travel market. Increasing direct foreign investment of Chinese companies overseas results in more business travellers from China going places. In addition, well-heeled Chinese are able and willing to spend considerable sums of money on prestigious trips abroad.
 
As Chinese outbound travel grows, the number of fully independent travellers (FIT) and semi-independent travellers (SIT) increases. The Internet has become Chinese travellers’ key source of destination information and travel services. They are using search engines like www.qunar.com and www.ctrip.com to tailor-make their own itineraries. Social network service platforms such Sina Microblog, MSN, and QQ chartroom are being used to share travel stories and destination information.

Meanwhile, the main approach for long-haul travel is still through tour groups that tend to cover multiple destinations. Favourite outbound tour products include coastal vacations, cruises, FIT, theme tours such as eco-tourism and adventure, all of which make South Africa very competitive. Natural attractions, land-based sightseeing, cultural, sports or heritage attractions are popular among Chinese visitors to South Africa, who normally also visit Kenya, Egypt and Namibia.

However, Brouwer says feedback from SAT’s Chinese trade partners is that Chinese travel to South Africa is hampered by the long flights, a visa regime that does not support individual travellers, safety concerns and expensive packages when compared with similar destinations elsewhere.

Brouwer says travel agents based in China tightly control South African itineraries.  Most Chinese prefer eight-day packages and they prefer direct long-haul flights. Hong Kong is a more seasoned market and sets the trends in terms of new travel destinations.