Holidays on the wild side

Pristine nature, wildlife, a city lifestyle, affordable luxury and amazing adventures have made South Africa popular with Chinese visitors. [Photo Provided to China Daily]

Visa facilitation centers

To encourage a seamless travel experience for Chinese citizens, South African Tourism has set up visa facilitation centers in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Chengdu, Xi'an, Shenyang, Wuhan, Jinan and Hangzhou.

And speaking of other promotional efforts, Brouwer says: "With China becoming the world's largest outbound tourism source market of South Africa, we continuously participate in global and national events in China, such as the CIBTM (the China Incentive, Business Travel and Meetings Exhibition)."

South African Tourism has also established partnerships with major Chinese travel agencies, including U-tour, CYTS and Uniway, to stimulate demand for indigenous and real South African experiences.

Relationships with key airline partners are also being strengthened.

Now, Air China has a nonstop flight between Beijing and Johannesburg via a code share with SAA.

The direct overnight flight from Beijing to Johannesburg takes 15 hours.

In 2014, China became one of South Africa's core tourism markets, alongside the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany and India.

South Africa expects the Chinese tourism boom to continue in 2017-2018, particularly due to the favorable exchange rate for visitors from the mainland.