South Africa shines bright at

South Africa shines bright at London travel show

London’s holiday show, Destinations, featured the best South Africa has to offer.

South Africa shines bright at

Nature holidays have again dominated the African presence at London’s holiday show, Destinations, and this time they included several new exhibitors. The show got an estimated total of 55,000 visitors at Olympia earlier this month.

The popularity of South Africa was summed up by Abigail Street of Weekend a la Carte/Big 5 Safaris, based in Wilton: “We operate worldwide, but asked to have our stand in this area to exploit the slump in the Rand.”

Another new exhibitor was African Private Journeys whose director, David Reading from Durban, said: “We are tapping the high end of the market as well as providing basic travel.”

Also based in London is On the Go Tours whose representative, Kate Filer, noted, “Africa is making a come back and becoming a more popular destination, especially after a difficult couple of years with events such as Ebola.”

More reasons for the healthy market were provided by Tony McKeith, who runs Busanga Safaris in Windsor, “Being out in the open is seen as safe relative to some other aspects of travel, besides which conservation is helping”.

Safari

Out of 67 Africa-bound exhibitors, 12 covered wildlife. They also included Real Africa, 2X2 Holidays and Zambezi Safari as well as Gosheni, based in Arusha, whose managing director, Alex Kwayu, emphasised: “We have begun to exhibit here because Britain is the biggest market for safaris”.

Rovos Rail was at Destinations as usual among companies located in South Africa. Estee Badenhorst from Pretoria said, “I fly to England about six times as year to be at various exhibitions, including the road-show organised by Africa Showcase, based in Johannesburg.

Avos

South African wines were also being promoted at Destinations, thanks to Premier Estates of Solihull.   Dutch-born Bram Colaris, who does its online marketing, told me, “Cases of Chenin Blanc are particularly popular”.

The tourist offices of Malawi and Morocco as well as representatives from five further African countries, including South Africa’s neighbours, were among some 300 exhibitors at Destinations.

Tags: