SOUTH African Tourism (SAT) has kicked off its 2012 Fundi (South African Expert) in Japan, South Korea, China and Hong Kong last month.
A three-month online training campaign, Fundi aims to enhance travel consultants’ knowledge about South Africa to help them sell the destination better.
Bradley Brouwer, regional manager, Asia-Pacific, South African Tourism Beijing, said SAT felt that the time was ripe to launch Fundi 2012 as interest in South Africa was high in China because of direct flights from Hong Kong and Beijing.
“Fundi has been going for many years and it is available all over the world, mostly in English. We update it regularly to keep information up to date for learners and we have also tried to translate the programme into a number of different languages,” he said.
Available in Mandarin, travel consultants in Hong Kong and China will need to sign up on SAT’s Fundi website to enrol for the course, which offers 13 modules – four compulsory modules covering basic knowledge like introduction, key infrastructures and tourism resources and sales skill, and nine selective modules covering nine provinces.
Participants have to complete the four basic modules plus at least three selective modules for examination.
All graduates that pass the course receive a certificate as proof they have completed the programme and can be called Fundi.
The first 600 Fundi graduates will get a Fundi gift package comprising a bottle of Amarula wine, a box of rooibos tea and a passport holder. The tourism body will also select the top 10 Fundi graduates to win a free trip to South Africa. SAT has also launched a campaign on Chinese microblogging site Weibo to promote the campaign and will select a winner to accompany the top 10 Fundis on their South African trip.
As the first wave of SAT’s promotions targets first-tier Chinese cities such as Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, SAT will look to spread word of the programme to second-tier cities in mid-2013.
