SA Tourism has outlined a range of initiatives aimed at growing arrivals from China, including visa facilitation measures, trade engagement programmes and targeted marketing campaigns.
The tourism authority’s comments follow recent industry discussion about the pace of recovery from one of South Africa’s highest-spending source markets and the opportunities presented by growing outbound travel demand from China.
One challenge is growing competition for Chinese outbound travellers with destinations across Asia, Europe, the Middle East and Africa competing for market share. South Africa is also contending with safety concerns that continue to influence traveller perceptions.
Tourism officials acknowledged that high-profile incidents, including the kidnapping of Chinese travel content creator Lan Zhanfei in South Africa last year, generate negative publicity in the Chinese market.
To address these concerns, SA Tourism said it worked with government agencies and the private sector to strengthen safety measures at major tourism sites.
“More than 2 300 trained tourism monitors have been deployed at key attractions around the country while the South African Police Service has increased support for tourism safety initiatives,” said Mia Liu, Marketing Officer at SA Tourism’s Beijing office.
The tourism authority has also increased safety-related communication through Chinese-language digital channels.
“Safety messaging is being disseminated through official accounts on Weibo, WeChat and WeChat Video Channel,” said Liu, adding that SA Tourism is also preparing to launch an account on Xiaohongshu (RedNote).
Air access remains another focus area. Air China currently operates three weekly flights between Shenzhen and Johannesburg and Cathay Pacific increased its Hong Kong-Johannesburg service to daily flights in July 2025.
Tourism officials believe these developments are improving accessibility from multiple Chinese cities and making South Africa a more viable option for long-haul travellers.
SA Tourism also highlighted visa reforms aimed at improving access to the destination. The Trusted Tour Operator Scheme, introduced in February 2025, has processed more than 13 000 Chinese visitors and accredited 47 tour operators in China.
Additionally, the Electronic Travel Authorisation system is designed to allow travellers to obtain approvals digitally and benefit from dedicated airport processing lanes.
“Public awareness of these new policies is still building. This takes time and we are scaling up trade training and consumer campaigns,” said Liu.
Marketing efforts are increasingly focused on digital channels and partnerships with Chinese celebrities and key opinion leaders.
One of the tourism authority’s recent campaigns featured Chinese actor Lei Jiayin. Future plans include expanding engagement across platforms such as Weibo, WeChat, Douyin, Bilibili and Xiaohongshu.
As part of this strategy, SA Tourism will host a dedicated China trade engagement event at Sun City in August to gather Chinese travel trade representatives, media and influencers with South African tourism suppliers.
The event will focus on showcasing South African tourism experiences and strengthening relationships with the Chinese travel trade.
