The tourism marketing agency seeks to leverage on technology to grow the east African market
Nairobi – October 10 2011: South African Tourism is scaling up its online training programme for its travel trade partners in Kenya and the east African region selling South Africa as preferred tourist destination.
The online training porgramme dubbed ‘Fundi’ is designed to equip travel trade partners from the regional with the right tools to be able to sell South Africa effectively.
Speaking in Nairobi at the first graduation ceremony of 58 travel agents drawn from Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania who successfully completed the Fundi programme South African Tourism Regional Director for Africa/Middle East and Domestic, Phumi Dhlomo, said the Fundi programme seeks to ‘empower trade partners and travel consultants with a diverse knowledge of South Africa, allowing them to better sell destination South Africa.’
“We are grateful that our online training programme for our travel trade partners, Fundi, has been received well by travel agents from Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania. We believe that having successfully completed our Fundi programme, they are now well equipped with the travel information and knowledge about South Africa that will enable them to various destinations better. The knowledge they have acquired is most certainly a tool that will increase their sales to our country, and improve their businesses too,” said Dhlomo.
He continued: “Fundi has an additional benefit of significantly increasing productivity in servicing clients because time does not need to be spent researching and planning a possible package to South Africa. The Fundi will be well versed and trained in this, allowing them to service more clients.”
Mr Dhlomo disclosed that would be seeking to build on increased tourist arrivals from Kenya and the wider east African markets. According to the 2010 South Africab Tourism’s statistics, Kenya contributed a total of 32,000 arrivals to South Africa.
“We see a greater potential in the wider east African region, which we believe can contribute upto 70000 tourists visiting South Africa annually. Through such innovative products like Fundi, we are making it easier for our travel trade partners to sell South Africa in the entire region,” he said.
Fundi can be completed within three months, which completion translates a participating travel agent into a certified South African Travel Expert. The 58 Fundi graduates were awarded a certificate of completion by South African Tourism.
He confirmed that as part of the Fundi challenge, 10 of the 58 graduates will have the opportunity to win a fully-hosted trip to South Africa, to experience first-hand the many learning’s absorbed over the course.
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