Chennai to be fastest growing Indian market for South Africa Tourism by 2025 | Mint – Mint

Chennai News

NEW DELHI: Dominated by solo travellers, Chennai is projected to be the fastest growth market in India for South African tourism by 2025, as per the latter’s tourism board. In 2021, Chennai was the third largest Indian feeder market to South Africa with 7.5% Indian arrivals from the city. Mumbai and Delhi are its other top source markets from India. Chennai is also projected to be the country’s highest growth market by 2025, with a 30% CAGR, said representatives during a visit.

In a statement, the tourism board said it engaged with the Tamil Nadu Tourism Development Corp. to discuss skill development and other potential collaborations, while also connecting with other key travel players and corporates.

Neliswa Nkani, hub head, Middle East, India and South East Asia, South African Tourism, said, “Being one of our top three source markets from India and the highest projected growth market, we see immense potential in the city and have been exploring collaboration opportunities to further our footprint here. We are invested in making the destination more accessible to people from here, we will continue to push for a direct flight from India.”

In 2021, 58.2% solo travellers from Chennai visited South Africa, while 34.7% travelled with colleagues and associates. “With the Indian outbound travel economy projected to surpass $42 billion by 2024, we believe that the time is right to invest in this crucial market. Basis our conversations over the last few days, we expect to see an increase in MICE groups travelling to South Africa in the next six months. We anticipate bookings from financial, information technology, beauty, insurance, coal and mining, pharmaceutical, entertainment and sporting companies based in Chennai.” Nkani said.

Earlier this year, the tourism board had outlined a strategic roadmap to garner a 64% YoY increase in Indian visitors in 2022. With over 17,627 Indian visitors travelling to South Africa during January to May this year, the tourism board is well on track to achieve or even surpass their yearly targets of 28,890 for this year. 

The board said its visa processing time has been short, with visas available within a week from the date of application and that is also helping with travel. 

According to Statista, India’s outbound tourism market size in 2019 was close to 27 million. This, however, wasn’t a significant increase over 2018 when the number of outbound travellers was 26.2 million. ResearchandMarkets.com said that Indian Outbound Tourism Market is expected to surpass $42 billion by the end of 2024.

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Source: https://www.livemint.com/news/india/chennai-to-be-fastest-growing-indian-market-for-south-africa-tourism-by-2025-11664184883876.html