China’s Tencent and the South African Tourism Beijing Office (SA Tourism) have announced a new partnership geared towards increasing the number of Chinese tourist arrivals in South Africa.
The collaboration will span over two years and aims to position South Africa as one of Chinese travellers’ preferred tourism destinations through digital marketing campaigns on WeChat and other platforms within the Tencent ecosystem.
Tencent will assist SA Tourism with a knowledge transfer programme on best practices for destination development, and will advise SA Tourism on how South Africa can accelerate the implementation of WeChat Pay for Chinese travellers visiting South Africa. Tencent will also advise SA Tourism on best practices in Chinese visitor experience by making use of QR codes.
President Cyril Ramaphosa re-affirmed the tourism sector as being crucial for the future of South Africa, with the country aiming to double international tourist arrivals from 10.5m to 21m by 2030, and Chinese travellers are expected to make up a significant proportion of that.
In 2018, Chinese tourist spend in South Africa increased 69% from R1.4bn to R2.4bn. Annual visitor numbers have almost hit 100,000 and length of stay has increased by four days (from 7 to 11 days) from 2017 to 2018.
Said Mmamoloko Kubayi-Ngubane, minister of tourism, South Africa, “South Africa is open for business and remains an appealing destination for Chinese travellers. I am pleased that, together with Tencent, South African Tourism China is laying a solid foundation for growth in visitor arrivals from China to South Africa. This strategic co-operation agreement is one of many initiatives developed by the South African Tourism office in China to increase Chinese arrivals to South Africa. I am pleased to see progress being made through our collective efforts to get South Africa China-ready.”
Norman Tam, general manager of Tencent International Business Group (IBG), said, “We look forward to supporting SA Tourism with our innovative and unique platforms, as well as providing them valuable insight about Chinese consumers in order to enrich their travel experience.”
This year, South African Tourism launched its 2019 theme in the China market, Wild Authentic South Africa, with a goal of raising awareness of South Africa as an appealing destination to experience land and ocean safaris.
