Perspective; be it in the sense of how precious life is, or how valuable our liberties, social relations and freedom of movement really are, or even how quickly it can all be gone or taken away by some out-of-our-control fluke. Perspective; the ability to assess and appreciate from multiple angles, the moment one is living through, as well as see all its pitfalls, opportunities and ways out.

Perspective is also about the angle of approach; the side of things we get to (or choose to) see. Take for example, the world-famous Three Rondavels in Mpumalanga, South Africa. The elevated view-point along the Panorama route is arguably, and rightly, the route’s most photographed and iconic angle. From this angle it is the definition of breath-taking splendour.

By boat from down-below the Blyde River canyon, while navigating the serene waters of the Blydepoort dam, will leave you awed by the same three imposing round-shaped and dome-topped peaks, dwarfing you and your surrounds, in a most majestic manner. Same geological wonder, different perspectives.

South African Tourism’s response to wanderlust

Appreciating perspective of our travellers – domestic, regional and international – has become something of an obsession for those of us honoured with the task of polishing the crown jewels of South Africa’s tourism and showcasing them to the world.

We are increasingly observing that for many travellers around the world, wanderlust has taken on a deeply spiritual, reflective, recharge-and-renewal-seeking, infinitely deeper meaning in the emerging new ‘post-pandemic’ world. In response to this we are activating our core audiences through understanding what moves our travellers, not only asking them to visit BUT bringing them to visit through South Africa’s ambitious MegaFam hosting.

Inspiring a sector to ‘Live Again’

Our ambitious ‘Live Again’ campaign was born in February this year, at a time when the future of travel and tourism was on a slightly better footing than the preceding two years, but still far from certain and secure.

Our global marketing campaign, twinned with our country’s first global television advertisement in five years served to complement our ‘Live Again’ brand promise, and amplify our message that we are the ultimate destination to re-energise body, mind and spirit.

Months later, with all the ingredients mentioned above mixed in and left to set and simmer, it is quite gratifying to see that it is all beginning to come together. Even factoring in the lag effect of the travel bans imposed late last year, by some countries on South Africa and other countries in our neighbourhood, the number of passports being stamped-in at our immigration counters is trending up well. With the figures from Stats SA and analysis of Home Affairs data, by June this year, we had received nearly 2.28 million international visitors, well on track to matching and surpassing last year’s full-year total of just over 2.3 million.

This reality is, pleasingly, also beginning to be noticed by key players in sectors such as aviation. Air Belgium’s introduction, this month, of a direct flight twice a week between Brussels, Johannesburg and Cape Town is the latest evidence of the smart money flowing (or in this case ‘flying’) to a destination that just makes sense. Importantly for us, this so-called ‘triangular flight’ (between three cities) plugs us directly to the heart of Europe, a key source-market for leisure and business travel into our country.

Along with moves such as the Qatar Airways – SA Airlink cooperation agreement reached a few months ago, we consider these developments to be early signs of vindication of the decisions we have taken in the past year, around putting our country out there in the world, more boldly.

SA’s great MegaFam – bringing travellers to South Africa

It’s time to make South Africa the object of pining and longing in hearts and minds across continents, time-zones, latitude and longitudinal lines. It’s time to insert our beautiful country’s name into conversations had in any language from KiSwahili to Espanyol, Mandarin to Urdu, Yoruba to Portuguese and everything in between.

Courtesy of Bizcommunity – read full article here.