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Asian markets, including China, Japan and South Korea, offer great potential for the South African meetings, incentives, conferences and events sectors, but capturing this market requires businesses to work collaboratively and meet high expectations.
This was the message from Bradley Brouwer, President Asia Pacific, for South African Tourism, who shared insights with the trade at a recent workshop hosted by Satsa in collaboration with SA Tourism.
Brouwer said destinations in South East Asia courting the MICE market in Asia went “above and beyond” and South Africa would need to match these offerings. He highlighted examples such as travellers in incentive groups receiving gifts on their pillows on every night of a trip and buses being escorted by police. Brouwer emphasised that the police escort was not because of concerns of safety, but made groups feel important.
On safety, Brouwer, who has been in China for 10 years now, said that this year, for the first time, he had not been asked about safety. He pointed out that security concerns elsewhere had helped improve the safety perception of SA and said the trade would do well to capitalise on this trend.
Direct air access from Japan would also help drive MICE and leisure tourism from this market.
Brouwer also said FIT was growing out of the Chinese market. However, he also emphasised that, even on coach tours, there was potential for high spend, adding that Chinese people should not be judged on their appearances and the super wealthy sometimes dressed in tatty clothing. Brouwer said there were about 7 500 Chinese billionaires (in Yuan) and 63 500 Chinese nationals with over 100 million Yuan in assets.
To read the full presentation, click here for the Chinese market, here for the Japanese market and here for the South Korean market.
Sоurсе: tourismupdate.co.za
