The South African Consul General in Hong Kong, Ms Tembi Tambo has urged Hong Kong travel agents to be more adventurous when it comes to the packaging of South African experiences to their clients. Speaking at the opening of South African Tourism’s Hong Kong Trade Show, she challenged all South African marketing and promotion agencies to convince the Hong Kong trade to become more bold and move beyond the tried and tested traditional Cape Town-Sun City tourism experience.

According to Tambo, Hong Kong travelers would visit Australia, a country that offers far less than South Africa, three or four times, thus making a huge impact on that country’s economy: “In contrast, the unimaginative packages put together by the local trade are one-dimensional and dull. Hong Kong outbound visitors to our beautiful country miss the wonderful tourism offerings lying between the Cape and Sun City and therefore it is imperative that the South African and Hong Kong trade partners work together to fill this gap. The FIFA 2010 World Cup™ offers a wonderful opportunity to address this shortcoming”.

South African Tourism (SAT) is currently on a Tourism Trade Road Show in Hong Kong where it is promoting the country as a preferred destination before, during and after the FIFA 2010 World Cup. Cape Town Routes Unlimited (CTRU), Mpumalanga Tourism and Parks, Bitou Tourism, Eastern Cape Tourism and 17 other private product owners like Sun International and Southern Sun have joined SAT on this week-long China Trade Show.

South African companies directly engage with top Hong Kong outbound travel agents like Miramar Travel, Hong Thai Travel Services Ltd, Evergloss Tours Company Ltd and Wing on Travel convincing them that South African tourism offerings are not only world-class but also good value for money.

Representing Cape Town and the Western Cape in Hong Kong today is CTRU’s CEO , Calvyn Gilfellan, who concurred with the Consul-General but added that there are historical and logistical reasons for this: “One is that the “average” traveler from this market has time limitations and has to squeeze in as many experiences as possible in a 5-7 day tour and Cape Town remains a must see experience. Secondly, the current tourists from this market purchase their holiday within a pre-set budget which often does not exceed R15 000 for a 7-day tour. What then happens is that travel agents put travel itineraries together to match those budgets, leading to the current and sometimes watered-down version of our tourism offering. However, in my direct engagements with travel agents, I sense that they are willing to cooperate with us to address this historical situation for the better. The next few months offer us the opportunity to actively tackle this challenge and close the gap.”