South Africa pushes domestic travel
Michael Appel
18 April 2008
South African Tourism (SAT) has joined forces with hospitality group Southern Sun to boost domestic tourism, by make travelling locally more easier, more exciting and most of all, more affordable.
Building on the success of SAT's Sho't Left campaign, Southern Sun this month launched its SunBreaks campaign, which targets young, up-and-coming South Africans, encouraging them to take shorter, more affordable holidays, more often.
"Research we did, indicates that there are 6.2-million South Africans out there that have the resources and desire to travel, but just aren't sure how to go about it, or what packages are on offer," said SAT Africa and Middle East acting portfolio manager Evelyn Mahlaba at the launch of the partnership on Wednesday.
"For any country to sustain tourism [and its contribution to the gross domestic product (GDP)], the backbone of this has got to be domestic travel."
Southern Sun communications general manager Priya Naidoo pointed out that the group was able to offer travellers from two-star to five-star accommodation, as well as timeshare options.
"Value for money when travelling is one of the greatest things that encourages people to travel," Mahlaba told BuaNews. "So partnering with Southern Sun, who have such an array of hotels across the country, we now have a partner that can fulfil the needs of emerging, young, and up-and-coming South African travellers."
She said that Southern Sun's portfolio of hotels enables SAT to cater to and offer individuals, touring groups and families affordable accommodation options.
Affordable packages
Southern Sun leisure general manager Lynette Esposito told BuaNews that in this day and age, there were a number of challenges facing South Africans who would like to travel, including lack of disposable income due to harsher economic conditions.
Through SunBreaks, a couple could book a Southern Sun hotel in Sandton, Port Elizabeth, Durban or Cape Town for R233 per night, per person sharing with a full English breakfast included.
The above package was aimed at targeting those South Africans who wanted to go away for a long weekend, and is thus valid from 25 April - 4 May 2008.
Another bonus to SunBreaks packages is that there's no need to worry if a couple has children under the age of 18, as they get to stay and eat for free.
Travel, tour partners
Esposito explained that through a new partnership with an extreme sport and adventure company, Cape Xtreme, SunBreaks customers would be offered discounted prices on activities such as mountain biking, shark cage diving, abseiling, horse riding and surfing.
SAT domestic marketing channel manager Denys Botes told BuaNews that both SAT and Southern Sun had aligned themselves with strategic partners in order to "piggy-back" off their services offered.
As an example, she said that as not all packages include transport, they had formed partnerships with airlines including low-cost carriers Kulula.com and Mango, offering discounted airfares as part of the packages.
Botes called on local residents to log onto the Sho't Left website to find their ideal holiday destination at the right price.
Alternatively, visit Southern Sun's SunBreaks website for more information on travel packages.
Source: BuaNews
