Cape Town, South Africa
WITH the dust settled following the World Health Organization’s declaration of Liberia to be Ebola-free in January this year, African specialists are eagerly targeting Asia’s travellers again.
Asia arrivals in Africa had taken a big hit since the 2014 Ebola outbreak in West Africa caused widespread death in the region, which led to the abstinence of travel to the entire African continent.
The avoidance of the whole of Africa, even though the virus only spread in the western regions, was ostensibly understandable given this was the deadliest occurrence of the disease in history with over 11,300 confirmed dead.
Now with Ebola out of the picture, Johan Groenewald, managing director of Royal African Discoveries, a DMC, has led a contingent of eight suppliers to South-east Asia for the first time to update travel agents on new product offerings, but more importantly to educate and to let everyone know that Africa is now, and had always been, a safe destination.
The roadshow, which first stopped in Singapore yesterday, will also make its way to Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam – the three fastest growing source markets for them in the region.
“Asia is key for our business and we will keep investing in the region,” said Groenewald, adding that working with trade partners has always been the preferred option rather than approaching consumers directly.
He is also hoping to ride on the momentum of 4Q2015, which saw Asia arrivals make its first positive turnaround since numbers plunged on Ebola fears.
Business for Asia-based outbound operator A2A Safaris is also making good progress. It’s managing director, Kim Nixon, said: “If you look at the first two and a half months of this year, we are 35 per cent of the distance to our entire 2015 performance. This is a very clear indicator of where this market is going.”
He attributed the promising numbers so far to pent up demand for Africa now that the “hangover of Ebola is gone”.
