The ‘Next Stop South Africa’ traveller, the ‘Wanderlusters’ and Nigerians are three key market segments for travel to South Africa, according to Aneshree Rambally of South African Tourism’s Welcome South Africa campaign.
Rambally was speaking at SA Tourism’s third Power of One Roadshow in Midrand on Tuesday when she encouraged industry members to do more to understand these three key segments and, by doing so, grow their business without spending money on marketing investments.
“With the Welcome campaign, lots of research goes into understanding and unpacking markets, so when looking at those insights we can create experiences that appeal specifically to these key markets,” said Rambally. “What we found with the ‘Next Stop South Africa’ market or experienced international travellers, is that they are an older generation, a more mature segment. Chances are they have had kids, their kids have left home and they have extra income to now travel.”
According to Rambally, this segment is looking for luxury and opulence and either travel as a couple or as a small intimate group. The way this segment connects with a destination is purely through the scenic beauty of that destination.
They was also very safety and security sensitive and asked questions around this, she said. “So you need to look at how you package that message of safety,” she said, adding that it impacted the perceptions of travelling to South Africa as a whole.
Rambally described the Wanderluster traveller as a younger market segmemt between the ages of 25 and 40. They are typically higher income earners and well travelled. “This type of tourist is very positive about South Africa and chances are that they will become a mobile, walking billboard, promoting your product on social media and online.
“Their emotional appeal is through connecting and having genuine experiences with local people. This does not just mean the people out there; it could be the people at the front desk or waiters. These are the type of tourists who want to connect with you and understand where you go on the weekends, what do you do for fun, and that is the kind of experience they are expecting,” she said.
The Nigerian market was growing and was coming to South Africa with American dollars to spend, Rambally said. “In research we have done, we found that Nigerians feel that the South African industry does not value them as much as they do the European or American market and we need to do more to change that and treat them with respect because they are here to stay.”
The Nigerian market also likes opulence and is predominantly coming to South Africa for business and to shop. To benefit from this segment, the trade needed to think of ways to encourage longer stays, taking day trips and promoting an upmarket experience that would appeal to Nigerians, Rambally advised.
However, some members of the audience raised their concerns about the Nigerian market. According to one member, in a year he received 6 000 bookings from Nigerians and only one of them was a genuine booking. According to the guest house owner, many Nigerians will make bookings on sites such as bookings.com to secure their visa but then they never turn up. As a result, he has decided to reject any bookings made from the Nigerian market.
Another problem, said a guest house owner, was that owners were now forced to validate credit cards and request passport information, which then upset Nigerian guests who felt they were being insulted.
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Rambally agreed that validating bookings remained a problem of the Nigerian market, but maintained that the point of the presentation was to encourage the trade to unpack markets with potential so that they could tailor product and provide value-added experiences that would improve the experience of the tourist.
