Fresh from supporting South Africa’s successful hosting of the 2010 Football World Cup, South African Airways has revealed strong visitor interest and enquiries in August through to Christmas this year.
According to South African Airways’ Head of Australasia Thevan Krishna, the airline is seeing stronger bookings for the remainder of July and August and much greater enquiry levels direct to SAA and to the travel trade well into 2011.
“I think people were waiting to see how the World Cup campaign went and now that it has been judged an overwhelming success, they want to come and visit our country,” Thevan said this week.
“During the World Cup SAA flew many thousands of international visitors between matches and we had minimal disruption to flights – the feedback has been fantastic,” Thevan said.
“South Africa invested heavily in new transport and tourism infrastructure which will pay dividends for the country for years to come,” he said.
“SAA opened new and revamped airport lounges in Cape Town, Durban and Johannesburg and that has been very much appreciated by our business class passengers.”
“Despite increased competition on the Australia-South Africa route, we are finding people want more than the cheapest airfare. They also want an airline that knows Africa and can fly them in the shortest possible time to the destination of their choice.”
“SAA is the acknowledged leading airline in Africa, winning best airline in Africa for the eighth consecutive year at the WTA awards this year.”
Thevan said SAA was working with SA Tourism and our friends in the Travel industry to market the country to Australians with a series of workshops and seminars planned for the next 12 months.
“We’re serious about taking advantage of the spin-off benefits of the World Cup and starting today we are off and running to show more Aussies the best that South Africa and Africa can offer,” Thevan said.
SAA flies non-stop from Sydney to Johannesburg six days a week and daily from Perth, with connections to the largest network in Africa. SAA is consistently voted the 'Best Airline & Cabin Crew in Africa' winning it for the 16th consecutive year in the Travel Weekly Globe Awards in London. SAA took out top honours at the recent WTA awards in London, with three awards in the Africa category. SAA is a member of STAR, the world’s largest alliance reaching 916 destinations in 160 countries. For more information on SAA flights and reservations please call 1300 435 972 or www.flysaa.com
