A new public relations and communications collaboration by influential agencies in the tourism and hospitality space has thrown its weight behind South Africa’s inbound tourism industry’s efforts to open the country to international tourism as close to September as possible.

The new PR collaboration, operating under the campaign banner ‘South Africa is Travel Ready’, comprises Scribe Consulting, Lesley Simpson Communications, Take Note Reputation Management, Big Ambitions, Tribeca Public Relations and The Hunter Group.    

Working shoulder-to-shoulder with the Inbound Tourism Recovery team, the ‘South Africa is Travel Ready’ PR and Communications collaboration is lobbying for a phased easing of international travel restrictions so that South Africa can open for international tourism.

The team has already focused on key themes that will support the overarching vision of an ‘open’ South Africa by September 2020, including generating and distributing content around South Africa’s community and conservation assets, a safe South Africa for staff and guests, the value of tourism to South Africa’s economy, and Destination South Africa as the ideal post-COVID lockdown destination.

In addition to the widespread media lobbying that has already taken place both locally and internationally to address the 2021 opening dates that had been circulated across media internationally, the collective has set up a website – www.traveltosouthafrica.org – and Facebook page, ‘South Africa Travel Ready’.

The hashtag #SouthAfricaisTravelReady is gaining traction with South Africa’s tourism sector and the collective has garnered the support of industry bodies, such as SATSA and ATTA. 

Every company and individual in South Africa’s tourism industry has the power to contribute to and amplify the message that ‘South Africa is Travel Ready’.

Industry can do this by:

• Emailing all positive destination news, images and videos (not a product push) to info@traveltosouthafrica.org
• Liking, following and sharing from the campaign’s Facebook and LinkedIn accounts
• Tagging all social media with the hashtag #SouthAfricaisTravelReady
• Tipping off the campaign drivers if you see any negative or positive publicity on tourism and South Africa – info@traveltosouthafrica.org
• Sharing the campaign's positive stories about Destination South Africa with your customers and encouraging them to amplify the #SouthAfricaisTravelReady message.