South African Tourism wants to grow the number of tourists from India to 1 lakh a year by 2014 from 79,000 that visited the country between January and September last year, according to South African Tourism Minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk.

South Africa started an aggressive tourism promotion for the Indian market three years ago, which included training to Indian travel agents and tour operators to sell the country as a destination.

While political and business ties between India and South Africa have grown since the latter nation became a democracy in 1994, tourism links have gotten off to a slower start.

One of the challenges to bridge the gap will be to enhance air connectivity between the two countries. Currently, South African Airways is the only airline offering direct flights from Mumbai to Johannesburg.

Last year, Jet Airways pulled out of the Mumbai-Johannesburg route, which the airline said was “part of its ongoing network evaluation with a focus on profitability.”

South African Airways now operates daily flights between Mumbai and Johannesburg. The airline has deployed Airbus A330-200s on this sector, offering 186 economy and 36 business class seats. With South Africa witnessing an upsurge of Indian tourists, the airline revised their frequency to meet the growing demand. About 60 to 70 per cent of its business comes from leisure travel and the remaining from MICE.

South African Airways is looking at increasing flights from other destinations according to Sajid Khan, Country Manager, India, South African Airways.

Schalkwyk said that the year-on-year growth of Indian tourists arriving in South Africa was 18 per cent and each tourist spent an average Rs 72,000 per trip.

nivedita.ganguly@thehindu.co.in

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