Proposed off-season package nears finalisation

SOUTHERN Africa Tourism Services Association (Satsa) ceo, Gail McCann and SA Tourism's chief marketing officer, Owen Leed have left South Africa to meet major tour operators in the UK, Germany and the Netherlands to obtain their support of the 'Opportunity SA' project. The project aims to provide tourists in those markets with affordable, quality tour packages to South Africa during SA's traditional off-season months between April and June. McCann says SA Tourism is just about ready to implement the project with the proposed launch date as early as mid February this year. She says that five generic suggested itineraries have been put together and include return airfare with SAA from the UK or Germany with the Netherlands still to be confirmed plus six nights accommodation and seven days car rental. These itineraries include: * Cape Town * Cape Town - Garden Route - Cape Town * Cape Town - Port Elizabeth - Cape Town * Gauteng - Mpumalanga - KwaZulu Natal - Drakensberg - Gauteng, and * Gauteng - Mpumalanga - Gauteng "In order to make this opportunity accessible to all Satsa members, we will be providing members with the finalised packages, as well as the international wholesalers who will be participating in the promotion. This information will give members the opportunity to market their company and services to the wholesalers/inbound tour operators. The advantage will be the competitive price while at the same time offering enough flexibility for add-ons and up-sells of the packages,"concludes McCann. (Miguel de Sousa)