The moment a Chinese tourist steps out of OR Tambo Inter- national Airport, he or she is immediately greeted by the fresh South Africa air, fleecy white clouds, clear blue sky and a wide-open horizon. This exotic landscape could instantly instill a joyful travel mood.

It’s no surprise that SA made its way to the top 12 preferred destinations for Chinese in 2015, a list produced by a popular fashion magazine in China. According to the latest data from South African verification service agency Grant Thornton, remarkable growth during the final four months of 2015 saw Chinese arrivals end- ing at 2.2% higher than those recorded during 2014.

According to a report released by Statistics SA last month, Chinese tourist numbers picked up by 85.6% last October to 7,902 compared to October 2014. China is one of the 10 leading countries of origin for overseas tourists here.

The strong growth trend has extended into 2016. By the end of January, one week before the Chinese traditional holiday, the lunar New Year Spring Festival which normally falls in February, Air China, the Chinese national carrier, was already fully booked. In February 2014, 11,457 Chinese tourists visited SA compared to 7,748 in February 2015.

For the Year of the Monkey New Year holiday, about 4,000 passengers from China travelled to SA with Air China, which has direct flights three times a week between Johannesburg and Beijing, accommodating 310 passengers. The flights give Chinese travellers more choice following SAA’s cancellation of the route.

“SA has nice warm summer weather when Chinese tourists desperately want to get over the cold winter at home,” says Ms Hu, a representative of Air China in SA. “This certainly makes SA more attractive to the Chinese.”

The further easing of visa restrictions by the South African Department of Home Affairs has contributed to the improvement of the tourism sector. The department has responded to the industry’s concerns by doing away with unabridged birth certificates for foreigners, allowing Chinese tourism companies to process visas on behalf of travellers, and looking into waiver visa requirements for China.

In addition, the department is considering multiple entry visas for frequent travellers to the country that will be valid for up to 10 years.

The department has also established two more South African visa application centres in the Chinese cities of Chengdu and Guangzhou, which were launched in the second half of 2015.

The effort from the Department Home Affairs proves that SA is working hard to catch up with other countries to garner a share of the Chinese overseas tourism market.

A new report issued by the United Nations World Tourism Organisation last month shows that China led the international outbound tourism in 2015 with the largest population of over- seas tourists and the most money spent. A total of 120-million Chinese people travelled over- seas in 2015, spending $194bn worldwide, making it the third year in a row that China topped the list of international out- bound travellers, according to statistics from China National Administration Tourism. On average, each Chinese tourist spent $1,761 overseas in 2015.

According to The Consumption Trend of Chinese Outbound Tourists (2015), a report issued by UnionPay International, shopping still accounts for the largest part of Chinese tourists’ spending abroad, followed by accommodation and transport. The pro- portions spent on entertainment, catering and attraction tickets are increasing, too.

UnionPay is a fast-growing international bank card association with more than 5-billion cards in circulation, which are accepted in more than 150 countries and regions and issued in over 40 countries.

One in two ATMs in SA accepts UnionPay cards (card number starting with 62), and merchants that accept Union- Pay cards include airports, hotels, attractions and shops mostly visited by tourists. Bar- clays Africa will, from June, also enable UnionPay card- holders to use Barclays Africa’s network of point of sale devices and ATMs across SA and nine other African destinations.

The bank card association sees Chinese overseas tourism market continue to grow in 2016. It forecasts 6-million Chinese spending the 2016 lunar new year holidays abroad, and more backpackers than people booking organised trips.

In SA, Chinese tourists still prefer organised trips. “From our booking information, we can see that Chinese tourists usually stay in SA for 10 days, and they choose package tours instead of travelling alone,” says Ms Hu, representative of Air China. “None of the tourist groups skips Cape Town.”

UnionPay International is promoting Cape Town as one of the “40 selected travel destinations worldwide” to its largely Asia-based cardholders. Moreover, UnionPay South Africa has partnered with several hotels, restaurants, winer- ies, tourism attractions, jewellery shops as well as regular merchants, offering cardholders a variety of benefits, including discounts of up to 30% at 30 merchants in Cape Town. The promotion will extend to duty-free shops in OR Tambo International Airport and Cape Town International Airport.

UnionPay International South Africa finds that jewellery shops and duty-free shops profit the most from the Chinese tourists.

“Local merchants enjoy not only free promotion on Union- Pay International’s platform, but also more Chinese business,” says UnionPay International’s South African office.

“We are extremely hopeful that new records can be achieved quickly to bring us back on track in terms of this important market for our nation,” says Lee-Anne Bac, director of advisory services at Grant Thornton SA.

(The story was originally published on Business Day on February 29th, 2016.)