Visiting South Africa for the World Hindi Conference in September or Travel Agents Federation of India conference in October?

South Africa tourism may have a special package for you.

Ms Hanneli Slabber, Country Head of South African Tourism, said that they were working out special packages to woo tourists during such events.

Ms Slabber is now on a whirlwind tour of 30 Indian cities to promote tourism in South Africa. "We’ve conducted roadshows in seven cities this far. Our plan is to cover 30 cities in 42 days," she said, during her visit to Coimbatore.

She observed that Indian women were the fastest growing adventure participants and people from the South, in particular, preferred to explore tourist destinations on their own, opting to hire a vehicle and drive themselves.

"We have had to rejig the entire programme in recent years and we are preparing ourselves," she added.

The country registered a 26 per cent jump in Indian arrivals in 2011, with a total of over 90,350 Indian tourists travelling to South Africa last year. Latest reports revealed that over 14,000 Indian tourists visited Sunny South Africa in January-February 2012 compared to 11,864 during the corresponding period of the earlier year.

"The depreciating Indian rupee has not impacted tourist flow this far, but we are expecting the traffic flow to take a hit in the coming days as airfares are bound to shoot up," she said in reply to a query.

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