Jozi woos lucrative Chinese tourism market

17 March 2016

 

Joburg Tourism – the City of Johannesburg’s tourism entity – has teamed up with UnionPay, the world’s largest card payment company, in a new move to attract millions of Chinese tourists to the City of Gold and other parts of South Africa as well as the rest of the continent.

 

With 4.7 billion cards in issue and a presence in 150 countries, UnionPay is bigger than Visa and MasterCard put together. 

More than 100 000 of UnionPay cards have been issued in 44 African countries. Two South African banking institutions – First National Bank and Standard Bank – are already in partnership with UnionPay. Absa, which entered the scheme in January, will start processing payments in June this year. UnionPay International representative Xing Gan and Joburg Tourism’s Marketing Manager, Lumka Dlomo, briefed about 15 tour operators and restaurateurs about the new partnership in Sandton on Wednesday March 16.

The move is expected to create several thousands of jobs in the local tourism industry and boost the City and South Africa’s economy. Every month, more than 14 000 Chinese tourists, most of whom are UnionPay card-carrying members, visit South Africa.

Dlomo said Joburg Tourism set its sights on the Chinese market after President Jacob Zuma and his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, declared 2014 the “Year of South Africa” in China and 2015 the “Year of China” in South Africa, which facilitated the development of tourism in both countries. She said China had become South Africa’s fourth largest overseas resources market.

“Statistics from the China Tourism Academy also show that China surpassed Germany and the US as the biggest market for outbound tourism in 2012. China will have more than 400 million outbound tourists in the next five years,” she said, adding that on average a Chinese tourist spent $6 200 (nearly R100 000) on a 10-day trip.

Dlomo said because Chinese tourists travelled in groups and had high spending power, they would be very good for local tourism. Dlomo and Xing said once a memorandum of understanding had been signed, tourism stakeholders would be approached to provide details of their businesses for a tourism booklet to be distributed in China. The booklet will be launched at the Tourism Indaba in Durban in June.

Lerato Mopedi, owner of Lihle Guesthouse in Orlando West and Xolani Mabika, of Siza Travel Agent in Dube, both in Soweto, said they found the briefing “very useful”. Mopedi said she would take the information back to her Soweto Accommodation Association.

“We are a 12-member all-women association. This is very useful information. We already have tourists from Australia, Holland, Botswana and Lesotho. It would be great to get Chinese tourists not just on day trips but to stay in our establishments for a couple of days,” Mopedi said.