Recognising the need to reach tourists from across the globe on various platforms, South African Tourism will host an ambitious familiarisation trip (MegaFam) trip involving 840 carefully selected people from varied backgrounds across all continents, time zones, linguistic and cultural regions, professions and social standing.

Acting CEO of SA Tourism, Themba Khumalo, said the country’s destination-marketing agency believed the moment was opportune to follow up and complement its ‘Live Again’ global campaign with a familiarisation strategy on a grand and bold scale.

The main thrust of the #MegaFam phase of the ‘Live Again’ growth campaign will see SA Tourism inviting opinion-makers, thought leaders and agenda-setters in niche tourism markets to experience all South Africa has to offer tourists over the coming months.

Guests on the MegaFam trip will include influential travel bloggers, writers and journalists from established media; international tour operators from various regions of the world, and conversation-framers who focus on the travel needs of specific tourism niche markets such as the LGBTQIA+ community, women, and romantic-travel seekers.

Bronwen Auret, Chief Quality Assurance Officer of SA Tourism said: “The idea is for them to come and be immersed in, to touch, feel and experience South Africa for themselves. They in turn, will be touched by our Ubuntu-centric spirit of hospitality, such that when they go back to their home countries, they won’t be able to keep quiet about their experiences here, and will want to tweet it out loud, Instagram it boldly, blog it boisterously and of course for those in the tourism booking business, ‘sell it’, as that old TV advert used to say.”

Examples of the invitees include a London-based French and Greek couple Stefan and Sebastien, who have dedicated the past 10 years to travelling to more than 80 countries around the world, and reviewing them for the global LGBTQIA+ community on their blog ‘Nomadic Boys’.

Other high-profile invitees include US-based Danny Rivers Mitchell, whose ‘Black Girls Travel Too’ agency and blog curate travel experiences around the world for black women; and Rwandan travel photographer, Winnie Rioba.

Said Auret: “The launch of MegaFam comes against the backdrop of recent developments that vindicate the correctness of the bold moves we have made to stimulate the tourism sector over the past year, such as the launch of the ‘Live Again’ global campaign.”

Stats SA’s numbers reveal that by June this year, South Africa had received about 2.28 million international visitors, well on track to surpass 2021’s full-year total of just over 2.3 million.

These statistics bode well for SA Tourism’s target of raising international tourist arrivals beyond the 10 million per annum averaged in the three years immediately prior to the pandemic (2017, 2018 and 2019), which Auret has likened to South African past-President Nelson Mandela’s long walk.

“Our long walk is not ended until we match and pole-vault over this sector’s benchmark contribution to our economy’s GDP, which was 3.9% in 2019, yielding at least 774 000 jobs and some R122 billion (€7.1bn) in foreign currency earnings that year. Our walk is not ended until we vindicate the World Travel and Tourism Council in its prediction that our country’s tourism sector will grow at an average of 7.6% per annum, over the next decade.”

Read more from Tourism Update