South African Tourism and Southafricaholidays.com sign a Joint Marketing Agreement (JMA), building Middle Eastern tourist appeal for South Africa through a series of activities

DUBAI, UAE., 30 September 2013 – South African Tourism (SA Tourism) and Southafricaholidays.com have signed a Joint Marketing Agreement aimed at the Travel Trade and consumers to further boost tourist arrival numbers from key markets in the Middle East to South Africa.

Under this new agreement, South African Tourism and Southafricaholidays.com intend to collectively partner on a range of marketing activities focusing on some of the biggest Middle Eastern inbound visitor markets. The arrangement will see SA Tourism embark on joint marketing with the Travel Trade as well as direct marketing activities targeting the consumers.

Through this partnership, the “SA Specialist Programme” which is an interactive learning experience designed to improve the knowledge of South Africa and equip the Travel Trade with the skills to sell South Africa as a tourist destination will be launched in Middle East.

The SA Specialist programme has many benefits once the agent qualifies as an SA Specialist. These include: access to marketing tools and resources, familiarization trips opportunities, e-newsletters, invites for trade events, certification and business card stickers etc.

South African Tourism’s Chief Executive Officer Thulani Nzima said, “South African Tourism has been actively marketing South Africa in emerging markets including the Middle East for several years now and that has seen a steady increase in visitor numbers. In the Middle East most of these initiatives were conducted through local cooperative marketing activities, realizing the potential of this market. Southafricaholidays.com has demonstrated a strong and growing commitment in promoting South Africa as a destination and has been one of its most committed marketing partners. We are pleased that we have now formally forged this long-term strategic partnership which will contribute significantly to us marketing South Africa in the Middle East. We believe that this Joint Marketing Agreement will further grow tourism to South Africa from these key Middle Eastern markets”.

Bisy Philip, Chief Operating Officer of Southafricaholidays.com said, “South Africa is one of the most potential markets from the Middle East, especially United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia in terms of tourism. This paves a long road to work closely with SA Tourism and consumers to create that much needed awareness and increase tourist arrivals from the Middle East to South Africa.

Both SA Tourism and Southafricaholidays.com regard this Joint Marketing as a serious commitment in elevating promotion of South Africa as a tourism destination. Over the next few months Southafricaholidays.com will work hand to hand with SA Tourism to roll out various marketing activities”.

About SA Tourism
SA Tourism is the national tourism agency responsible for marketing South Africa as a world-class tourist destination internationally and domestically. SA Tourism aims to make tourism the leading economic sector in South Africa, and in so doing to promote the sustainable economic and social empowerment of all South Africans. Simultaneously, the organisation endeavours to market South Africa as an integral part of regional Africa and particularly of the subcontinent of southern Africa.
About Southafricaholidays.com

Southafricaholidays.com is the one-stop online travel shop to Africa. Southafricaholidays.com offers flights, hotel accommodation, car hire and travel insurance online whereby visitors can book and purchase online in a secured environment with instant confirmation. Southafricaholidays reach in the African continent is unmatched. As one of the world’s leading online travel companies, Southafricaholidays.com make it easy to plan the next trip of our Customers to Africa. Visitors can browse through our site to discover destination ideas to Africa and book and pay in a secured environment. Southafricaholidays.com specialize in vacation packages, both tailor made itineraries according to clients requirements or readymade packages.

For the Travel and Tour Operator Community, Southafricaholidays.com supplies the content to create truly exceptional travel experiences for their customers. Southafricaholidays.com’s team of professional contractors focus on contracting products that cater to all budgets and tastes, hotel and apartment rooms, transfers, sightseeing tours, excursions and packages and ensure that our partners get the best rates. We negotiate personally and directly with hotels and ground operators to ensure the best possible value, and then use the latest technology to deliver these bargains to the travel trade. The B2B portal of Southafricaholidays.com enables the Travel and Tour Operator to compare, book and confirm flights, hotels, cars and insurance and the holidays team at Southafricaholidays.com provides exceptional itineraries to the Travel Trade for their customers.