South African Tourism creating Aussie ambassadors

Sitting in the afternoon sun on the outside deck of the first floor of the coffee shop in the ICC, Bangu Masisi, General Manager Australasia for South African Tourism spoke with the Mole about Australia and South African Tourism.

The conversation was momentarily stopped at various points by vociferous rugby supporters inside, watching their local Super 14 Rugby team win their semi-final.

Bangu was clearly happy with the South African government’s recent decision to invest more in the Australian market.  South African tourism sees Australia as a smaller market, but they are very impressed with quality of this market, rather than the quantity.

“The South African government can see the huge potential of the Australian and New Zealand market and this in turn is allowing us to move to the next phase of our strategy” says Masisi. “The initial plan for Australia involved us really starting from scratch to develop partners and strong relationships.  With this new investment, the Australian strategy will now allow for leveraging of those relationships and focussing on ‘consumer touch points’.

“We want to keep on surprising!” said Masisi with perfect timing, a huge roar next door erupting as the Sharks scored immediately following this statement. Bangu laughed and continued “We want to be more creative in the interactions with our partners going forward”

Bangu contrasted today’s great position with how it used to be 13 years ago.  Back then tourism in South Africa was disjointed and not really going anywhere fast.  Today there is proper infrastructure, local communities are directly benefiting, smaller communities are being uplifted through tourism and everybody is feeling part of both the country and the tourism industry.

Yes there is still a ways to go, however, within South African tourism, everyone is talking about the future with a “half-glass full” attitude and of long term possibilities in various international markets.

So how does this all translate tactically on the ground in Oz?

The best sort of advertising is something we all know, Word-of-Mouth! One person travelling somewhere and having an amazing experience soon has the friends, rellos, neighbours and workmates thinking “Hmmm, sounds like a place to visit……”

Put simply, South African Tourism in Australia wants advocates, ambassadors and testimonials!  In addition to building new relationships and nurturing existing relationships South African Tourism has committed to a programme to bring travel agencies and wholesalers out to South Africa every two years.

Shortly 100 travel agents across Australia and New Zealand will be winging their way over to South Africa.  Bangu said “It is important that they form their own impressions and then communicate them back to the consumer.”

Each group is going to be given a video to create a DVD of their trip to back up their individual testimonials.  Those who missed out on Indaba will be able to learn all about new South African tourism product and services, and importantly, agents who understand the Aussie market will be able to provide invaluable feedback to wholesalers and operators.

The major goal of the South African Tourism Programme is to not only educate the travel trade in Australia about the many positives on visiting South Africa, but also to provide those individuals selling the destination a real ‘African experience’ [The Mole hopes they get to stay in a Zulu hut!] that they can document for both promotional purposes and as a personal memento.

So quite a few people may soon be subjected to an ‘Uncle Arthur’s Home Video’ evening.  Let’s hope it is not a “Oh…heres another elephant, oh and another….!”  I’m sure it won’t be, as the itineraries are going to be pretty varied according to Bangu.

It appears that Australian perceptions about South Africa may at last be changing as wholesalers have started widening their focus, which up to relatively recently concentrated on the high-end of town. This is great news for Bangu who says “Our partners now see the value of growing the Australian market into South Africa, and word-of-mouth is one way that we can raise awareness of South Africa as a preferred destination.”

Again, with immaculate timing, a roar went up as the Sharks won their semi-final next door to further underline the point and end the interview!  The Mole briefly considered mentioning the recent World Cup Cricket winner whilst making his way through the happy crowd, but there seemed to be a lot of huge safari types in khaki hanging about – so it was straight back to the Media Room……

It looks like South African tourism is all set to grow substantially in the Australian and New Zealand markets, with increased funding and the ongoing educational programme.  A bigger budget also provides some more immediate returns for Bangu and her team in Sydney – a bigger office and more staff! The Mole is hoping that out-takes will be compiled from the various DVDs created and shared with the industry…!

Report by The Mole on location at Indaba 2007