A growing and keen interest in South Africa among young Americans builds strong word of mouth marketing in the US. South African Tourism plays host to a delegation of 42 people from the…
A growing and keen interest in South Africa among young Americans builds strong word of mouth marketing in the US. South African Tourism plays host to a delegation of 42 people from the Department of African Studies at the State University of San Diego, US.
The group that includes 30 university students, five high school students, a number of academic staff members and counselors is in South Africa for the students’ spring break to learn more of South African culture and to undertake volunteer and project work with NGOs and with youth-based organisations.
The delegation is lead by Chairperson at the Department of African Studies, Dr Shirley Weber. The visit is being filmed by an MTV crew. A documentary programme will be made of the group’s 10-day visit and will be screened next month in the USA on the MTV channel.
Claude Pretorius, Portfolio Manager: Americas and UK at South African Tourism says the destination marketing organisation wanted to meet the delegation and spend time with them to “give them a warm South African welcome and explain to them the enormous impact tourism is having in the South African economy.”
Dr Weber, leader of the delegation says the group is here as part of the university’s annual spring break. “In the US, spring break for university students is traditionally a time when young people party a lot, act irresponsibly and get into as much trouble as they can in as little time as possible. During our ‘alternate spring break’ here in South Africa, we have worked with organisations such as LoveLife, the Ithuteng Trust, with numerous cultural villages and with disadvantaged schools. We are here to make as much of a difference as possible… whilst learning as much about South Africa as we can.”
She says although the Department of African Studies is only four years old, there has been tremendous interest in the programme and student numbers are now “at capacity”.
There is, she adds, growing and keen interest in South Africa amongst young Americans and the annual visit to South Africa is unequaled as an annual academic highlight.
“We are a very diverse group of people,” Dr Weber says. “Yet we have been welcomed with warm hospitality everywhere we have gone in South Africa. Each of the students on this visit, and each staff member, goes back to the USA a happy ambassador for South Africa.”
According to Pretorius, “South African Tourism is determined to grow arrivals to South Africa from abroad… and one of the best ways of doing this was to ensure that every single visitor to South Africa goes back home to recommend this destination to family, friends, colleagues.”
“The US is one of the most exciting tourism markets for South Africa and our second largest source of tourists from beyond Africa. We know that word of mouth is one of the key contributors to awareness of our destination. Meeting with this group gives us a great opportunity to bolster their ambassadorship.”
“We are delighted to be given an opportunity to meet with this influential group of young people, to explain to them the impact tourism is having on improving standards of living for all South Africans, and to send them back home with both wonderful memories of our destination and with a determination to come back to visit again.”
Theodore is the Co-Founder and Managing Editor of TravelDailyNews Media Network; his responsibilities include business development and planning for TravelDailyNews long-term opportunities.
