Following an invitation to the South African travel trade in August, South African Tourism has launched the inaugural Nordics roadshow with 20 South African suppliers today. Starting in Copenhagen, and covering the cities of Oslo, Stockholm and Helsinki, the roadshow will end on the 26th of October 2017.
The Nordic region – namely Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Norway have grown in prominence in terms of the value and volume they present, contributing over sixty thousand arrivals to South Africa between January and July this year (see breakdown stats at end of this post). The tourism arrivals potential yielded by this region will contribute to South African Tourism reaching its strategic ‘5 in 5’ goal, which is to attract five million more tourists in and around to South Africa in the next five years.
“Our organization has spent a considerable amount of time over the past year reviewing our strategy, using research-driven analytics and insights to come up with a Marketing Investment Framework. Following this, we took a strategic decision to allocate additional budget towards further trade driven solutions with consumer reach and impact equipping members of the trade to adequately sell South Africa as a world-class tourism destination,” says South African Tourism Chief Operating Officer, Ms Sthembiso Dlamini.
South African Tourism’s strategy for the Nordics is largely based on smart, results-driven partnerships both with South African trade as well as in the market while ensuring that the introduction of new consumer relevant players is facilitated in the region. This goal is consistent throughout all activities planned for 2017 and 2018.
The roadshow coincides with the recent announcement that South Africa won its first award from the Nordics region – coming second in the vote for ‘Best Travel Destination outside Europe’ at the Danish Travel Awards. The USA came first and Thailand third.
“To be awarded this accolade and to be mentioned in the top three with two other markets who are dominant forces in their own right, is confirmation that South Africa definitely has the offerings that tourists want,” says Dlamini.
Following this roadshow will be a mega-familiarisation trip bringing a large number of Nordic agents to South Africa. In the true spirit of collaborations and partnerships, this fam trip will be a collaboration between South African Tourism, South African Airways and Destination Marketing Companies (DMCs) that have historically serviced and invested in the market. Additional details regarding this trip will be provided in greater detail in November, as plans are currently underway.
Nordic Market Tourist Arrivals Stats
The January to July 2017 Tourist Arrivals stats from the Nordics markets are:
Denmark: 17,392 = 7.4% increase compared to the same period last year.
Finland: 5,454 = 10.6% increase compared to the same period last year.
Norway: 11,514 = almost 1% increase compared to the same period last year.
Sweden: 25,996 = 16% when compared to the same period last year.
