The group experienced the destination’s wildlife and nature offering as well as its lifestyle and culture.
January arrivals from Germany were at an all-time-high, with 28 944 tourists – a growth of 21.7% compared with last year over the same period. TUI has also seen a growth of 50% in bookings to SA for the current year. As a result, travel offers and programmes to South Africa have been extended and German travellers now have the choice of 20 itineraries to the destination, of which 11 were newly developed for 2016.
Mathias Tewes, GM Product Management Longhaul East, TUI Deutschland, said the majority of the agents on the trip were visiting South Africa for the first time. “The feedback was very positive and they got good insights and an excellent overview of what South Africa and TUI has to offer,” he said. He added that the products in the programme, which included Cape Town, Winelands, Walker Bay, Port Elizabeth and Addo Elephant National Park, were rated good to excellent. “The agents got a much better understanding of what the destination has to offer.”
According to Tewes, training travel agents to make them familiar with the destination and its diversity of products and regions is one of the biggest challenges to selling South Africa. He says other challenges include restrictive immigration regulations for families; the immigration process at OR Tambo Airport in Johannesburg, such as long queues and the need to re check-in baggage for onward destinations; high demand during peak season when there can be accommodation shortages; and the fluctuation of the rand.
Tewes suggests that SAA should introduce a year-round direct flight from Germany to Cape Town.
“TUI is one of the biggest players in the market. We have a long-standing partnership of more than 20 years in which TUI helped us to unlock South Africa for German travellers. With this group of fantastic agents we kick-start our co-operation with TUI for 2016,” says Theresa Bay-Müller, SA Tourism Country Manager in Germany. “It is absolutely essential to invite travel agents to South Africa. They need to be trained on what our country has to offer and, most importantly, they need to be inspired by its beauty and people. They will be ambassadors forever.”
According to SA Tourism, strong and steady partnerships with the travel trade are the backbone of its work in Germany and familiarisation trips for travel agents are an important tool.
Participants of the familiarisation trip had to qualify by successfully completing an E-Learning programme.
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