Brazilians' last-minute bookings for the Cape

The conference coincided with South African Airways (SAA) and South African Tourism's annual Explore SA tourism marketing drive in Brazil and Argentina.

Addressing a large contingent of Brazilian mainstream and tourism trade media was South Africa's Consul General in Brazil, Yusuf Omar. He drew attention to the fact that Brazilians do not feature amongst the top-10 nations that have purchased tickets for the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa, or registered to become volunteers. It was left to the local travel representatives to explain that the tendency of travelling Brazilians is to wait until the last moment before finalising their bookings. While this is bad for planning purposes, it offers exciting opportunities for those destinations that have flexible tourism offerings.

Increased SAA flights mooted

Also in attendance was SAA's head in South America, Nelson de Oliveira, who spoke about the challenge of increased air capacity in the wake of the growing demand for flights next year. SAA is arranging additional flights between South Africa and Brazil from June 2009 and, ultimately, wants to service this route with four daily flights.

Cape Town Routes Unlimited CEO, Calvyn Gilfellan, is currently in Brazil leading the Cape Town and Western Cape delegation, which includes public and private tourism organisations from the Cape Winelands, Eden District Municipality, Drakenstein, Bitou, Mossel Bay and Stellenbosch. Gilfellan reported: “Our vibrant community, diverse culture, music, sports, food and natural beauty are praised by all I come in contact with. This marketing platform provides an ideal opportunity to tap into the Brazilian market that is showing very strong growth in the honeymoon, luxury travel, language school and youth travel fields. I have met the FIFA accredited travel agents for 2010 and they all report that close to 60 percent of their packages for the World Cup have already been sold. Given that Brazil is the current FIFA Confederations Cup holder, our overall expectation is robust growth over the short and medium term.”