Online Chinese training program offered for South African tour guides

The 2021 "Chinese+South Africa Tour Guide" training organized by the Department of Tourism South Africa and hosted by the Confucius Classroom of the Nanjing University of Finance and Economics resumed Nov. 2 in South Africa.

Dr. Xiong Jia, the lecturer from the Department of Tourism, School of Business Administration of Nanjing University of Finance and Economics, was invited to give a speech with the theme of "Chinese Outbound Tourists to South Africa: A Supply and Demand perspective", with the participants from China and South Africa exchanging their opinions online after the speech.

Xiong Jia introduced developments related to Chinese outbound tourism, using a range of data that illustrated the strengthening of comprehensive strategic cooperation between China and South Africa, and with more and more Chinese tourists visiting South Africa, showing that the Chinese tourism market deserves more attention from South Africa.

Xiong Jia also shared the latest research findings of China. Potential and actual Chinese tourists have a positive perception of South Africa as a tourist destination and are interested in visiting or revisiting South Africa.

To help South African tour guides better understand Chinese tourists, Xiong Jia also introduced the most prominent and recognizable behavioral preferences of Chinese outbound travelers, and suggested that tourism services should further focus on the young middle class, the main force for Chinese outbound tourism.

South African tour guide participants and the students in China actively discussed and interacted with each other. The Chinese students were curious about the food and festivals in South Africa, wanting to get more tips on traveling to South Africa, while moreover expressing their wish to learn more about how the South African people view Chinese tourists. The South African tour guides answered earnestly and expressed their welcoming attitude for travel to South Africa after the epidemic, expressing their strong desire to expand cooperation between China and South Africa in more fields of tourism.