NELSON MANDELA BAY WELCOMED GUILIN TOURISM

Ms Mandlakazi Skefile, Nelson Mandela Bay Tourism CEO with the drumbeat members and one representative from china.

Nelson Mandela Bay (NMB) welcomed Guilin Tourism as well as Guangxi Autonomous Region government representatives of the People’s Republic of China on Thursday, the 25^th June 2015. The tourism authority delegation of 7 representatives, headed by Chen Lihua the Deputy Executive Mayor of Guilin Municipal government, was in the Bay for a bilateral tourism marketing understanding and collaboration site visit.

The delegation is planned a dedicated communication forum on the day of the visit which took place at the Boardwalk Hotel and Convention Centre.  It was expected that that the meeting will enhance the understanding of the tourism resources and markets for both destinations and establish a sound platform for future collaborations.

 Sentiments shared by Ms Mandlakazi Skefile, Nelson Mandela Bay Tourism CEO, “As the destination marketing organisation we are proud to collaborate with Guilin Tourism  to increase collaborations and tourism between the two countries as better business relations will lead to increased travel between the two countries.”

Ms Skefile also confirms that they wish to further entrench the footprint within the China market when they accompany South African Tourism (SAT) on a 3 city road show that consist of visiting Shenzhen, Shanghai and Beijing. Nelson Mandela Bay Tourism will utilise and build on the existing platforms that have been put in place such as the Mandarin web-site that was launched in Beijing 3 years ago to attract visitors to Nelson Mandela Bay as well as the twin city agreement with Ningbo.

According to Statistics South Africa; China is South Africa’s fourth largest source market for tourist arrivals and continued to perform, growing by 14.7% to reach 151 847 tourist arrivals in 2013. Chinese travelers are particularly interested in unique products such as Mohair as well as wild life experiences combined with shopping.