South Africa is going all out to grow its share of the huge Chinese tourism market and is hoping to increase it tenfold in five years.
Addressing South African tourism stakeholders on Tuesday via a pre-recorded video, tourism minister Derek Hanekom said his recent talks with China’s South African ambassador had convinced him that this increase from the present annual 100,000-odd incoming Chinese tourists could be achieved.
“He said we could aim for one million in five years’ time if we achieved a few ‘right things’.
“Most important was to deal with unnecessary visa restrictions and to address crime.”
According to the latest analyses, riding on the back of a nascent middle class, Chinese tourist numbers have been rising steadily for nearly two decades.
Some 10.5 million Chinese travelled overseas in 2000, 145 million did the same last year and it is forecast that this figure will rise to 154 million by the end of this year.
In 2016, its tourism spend of $261bn (R3.48-trillion) was more than double the next best $123bn (R1.64-trillion) from the US.
Hanekom said SA would never forsake its traditional tourist markets in the US and Europe but the huge potential of China and India, and also an African country such as Nigeria, had to be capitalised on.Excusing himself from not being at the conference at the Boardwalk, which was hosted by the South African Tourism Services Association, the minister said President Cyril Ramaphosa had asked him to be part of bilateral talks on Tuesday with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
The talks coincide with the launch of the R11bn Beijing Automotive Industry Holding Company vehicle plant being built in the Coega industrial development zone outside Port Elizabeth.
They also come on the eve of the Brics (Brazil Russia India China South Africa) summit due to start on Wednesday.
Asked whether the tourism industry had an obligation to educate Chinese tourists about rhino poaching considering the flagship status of the species in SA and China’s position as one of the main recipients of horn, Mantis Collection founder Adrian Gardiner said he believed this could be an important and positive initiative.
Blunden Coach Tours boss Shawn Blunden said his staff was already communicating the issue to tourists.
“Rhinos are part of our heritage and we want to preserve them,” he said.
“The interesting thing is that many of our Chinese tourists know nothing about the problem.
“China’s a huge country and one can’t paint all the residents with the same brush.”
Blunden said his company was also catering to a growing number of Indians travelling on budget tours.
The metro had introduced a cross-subsidisation package aimed at attracting more of these tours, and the fruits of this initiative were now starting to pay off handsomely, he said.
“It is forecast that 1,800 Indian tourists will visit South Africa next year – and 600 of them will come to Nelson Mandela Bay.”
Speaking early on Tuesday at the conference, mayor Athol Trollip said the metro was heading for a record year.
This was geared around sports tourism linked to Algoa Bay and the metro was looking to become part of a new regional drive to grow numbers around golf.
Trollip said if jobless youths could be made part of the tourism industry it could go a long way towards solving the country’s unemployment crisis.
The metro wants to turn this potential into reality through several different projects, including the Unemployed Graduate Programme.