Korean travel to S. Africa rising fast: deputy minister

With increased political stability in Africa and economic growth to match, it is not surprising that more travelers are turning to the region to spend their holidays.

International tourism in Africa as a whole has nearly doubled since 2000 to 50 million visitors a year. Korean tourists are also rising, and many are choosing South Africa as their travel destination, according to the country’s Deputy Minister of Tourism Tokozile Xasa.

She was in Korea for a daylong trade and tourism workshop at a hotel in Seoul as part of her East Asian trip promoting South Africa at major target markets in China, Korea and Japan.

“The ministry of tourism has given us a platform to do the work in South Korea. We started doing joint marketing agreements last year. That helped elevate awareness among the consumer base,” Xasa said. “We are one of only two destination countries doing joint marketing agreements in Korea.”

South Africa’s focus on the Korean market started last year, but it looks like their efforts are already paying dividends.

About 20,000 Korean travelers visited South Africa in 2012, an 8 percent increase over the previous year. Those numbers could skyrocket this year if January figures (the only ones available as of now) are any indication.

More than 3,000 Koreans visited South Africa in January, a nearly 40 percent jump over the same period last year. That could translate into 40,000 visitors by December.

What is working is South Africa’s strategy of partnering with local tour operators.

“We set up either a one-on-one arrangement with a partner and African tourism and we put equal amounts of money to grow the market, or we do a tripartite agreement with an airline, a partner and South African tourism. This strategy is really working for us,” Xasa said.

But those numbers should not be too surprising. South Africa gets about a fifth ― about 9 million annually ― of all visitors to Africa.

Its share of overall Africa travel is increasing, too. Travel to South Africa increased 10 percent last year, higher than the 6 percent growth in international travel to Africa as a whole.

By Philip Iglauer (ephilip2011@heraldcorp.com)