SIA, Changi, African government to splurge S$1m in tourism promotion

Campaign kicks off in 2014.

According to a release, Singapore Airlines has signed a memorandum of co-operation (MoC) with Changi Airport Group and South African Tourism to promote travel to South Africa.

Under the agreement, the three parties will explore and implement activities jointly to promote tourist traffic to South Africa through Singapore Airlines’ services to Cape Town and Johannesburg via Singapore’s Changi Airport.

The parties have agreed to invest more than S$1 million in cash and in-kind collectively over the next one year to support advertising and promotional campaigns, as well as familiarisation programmes for trade and media representatives.

“South Africa is an important market to us and one which we have been serving for over 20 years. We are pleased to work together with CAG and SAT to develop and promote tourism from key markets in the Asia-Pacific such as China, Singapore and Australia to this fast-growing tourist destination which is renowned for its natural beauty, vibrant cosmopolitan cities and famous wildlife reserves," said Singapore Airlines’ Acting Senior Vice President Sales and Marketing, Mr Chin Yau Seng.

CAG’s Senior Vice President of Market Development, Mr Lim Ching Kiat, added: “With Changi Airport’s dense connectivity to China and Australia, as well as our award-winning airport services and facilities, we are confident that passengers on transit to South Africa will enjoy a first-class experience at Changi Airport.”

South African Tourism Chief Executive Officer, Mr Thulani Nzima, explained: “We have aggressively sought tourism growth from emerging markets such as Australasia, a region in which we grew 25.1% and attracted 541,253 tourists in 2012.

Singapore is an extremely important hub for us in the Australasia region and this agreement with Changi Airport and Singapore Airlines is part of our commitment to co-operate with some of the world’s leading global tourism industry players to stimulate tourism growth to South Africa.

We are very excited about this agreement, which will be trade-driven and includes consumer activities promoting travel to South Africa in one of the world’s most important passenger hubs.”

Singapore Airlines operates daily flights to Johannesburg and four flights a week to Cape Town from Changi Airport.