Direct flight services can increase Indian tourists to SA

Thursday, September 14, 2023

South Africa’s tourism sector is currently eyeing to welcome a larger share of Indian travellers, as its marketing promotion council recently said that it hopes that the sector could jump many times high if from India, direct flight services are introduced.

South African Tourism having welcomed almost 100,000 Indian tourists on an annual basis before the pandemic hit the world, it anticipates a large recovery in terms of Indian travellers because of a new pilot program on e-visa.

The hub head – MEISA, Neliswa Nkani, South African Tourism, said that Air India’s introduction of a direct flight service could boost up tourism, possibly altering the way Indians travel to South Africa.

Every year, almost 100,000 Indians travelled to South Africa before COVID began in 2019. In 2023, arrivals between January and June have by now reached almost 41,668. She said, this was an 82% increase compared to same time 2022. South Africa has a chance to be on track of getting its entire business from India back before the end of 2024.

Neliswa said that they had some hitches in regard to visas and staffing solutions at the time of the pandemic situation. While they still haven’t started out the e-visas yet, they have piloted it and they are getting applications due to that.

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