IN a bid to highlight the city of Pretoria as a preferred stopover destination for international tourists, delegates to Indaba were hosted by the Sheraton Pretoria Hotel & Towers in a two-day pre-Indaba Educational tour of the city last week.
Approximately 30 local and international tour operators, from as far afield as India, Mexico and the US, participated in the tour, which included an overnight stay in the five-star Sheraton, an educational city tour of what Jimmy's Face to Face Tours' inimitable Jimmy Ntintili calls 'South Africa's own Washington', a trip "up, over and around" Pretoria in a historic DC 4 Skymaster plane - hosted by SA Historic Flights - and a visit to the Pretoria-based luxury train, Rovos Rail.
The Sheraton's public relations manager, Theo Cromhout, says statistics indicate that 95% of international tourists spend a minimum of two nights in Gauteng.
"We hope to educate them about the varied attractions of the capital city - which include world-class shopping, a vibrant nightlife and reflect SA's richly diverse cultural history and architecture - so that they will consider it as an alternate destination to Sandton, Johannesburg, when they develop future itineraries."
According to Cromhout, Johannesburg International Airport is an almost equal distance from Pretoria as it is from Sandton and is more easily accessible off the highway to Pretoria than it is to Sandton.
Pretoria is also located closer to other major tourist attractions such as the Hartbeespoort dam, the Big Five game reserve of Pilanesberg and Sun City.
The Sheraton is also currently involved in the filming of a documentary highlighting the various tourist attractions in and around the governmental capital.
(Adele Mackenzie)
