Tourism Breaking News
South African Tourism has appointed Hanneli Slabber as Regional General Manager Asia, Australasia and Middle East. She has held the reins at South African Tourism’s India office for the past seven years. Slabber hands over to Alpa Jani whom she has worked with for six years and who will function in the capacity of Acting Hub Head, MEISEA, South Africa Tourism.
During her tenure at the India office, Slabber has grown to love and understand India. She has developed effective and long-lasting ties with media houses, travel trade, airlines and other authority figures in the travel industry. She has enabled, motivated and led the India office team as it has conquered the various taking the destination to the top of holiday-maker’s popularity charts: from establishing South Africa as a standalone destination, to building aspiration and universal appeal with celebrity, Bollywood and cricket personality associations and making classroom trainings identifiable and interesting. She has been instrumental in helping the South African travel industry understand India better, encouraging them constantly that it will be worth it to tailor not just for India but for the tastes and demands of people various regions/ states of India.
Her experience in taking a destination from one-among-many to a must-see safari and adventure hotspot with multi-segment appeal is expected to help South Africa make waves in the Middle East and South East Asia, where South African Tourism has recently set the ball rolling on destination promotion. Prior to her posting in India, she served as Global Product Head for the tourism board, based in South Africa where she learned the intricacies of various markets planning hosted trips for media and travel agents from various source markets.
Commenting on her appointment, Slabber says, “I look forward to continuing to bring value to the Indian market in my new role and I am excited about developing the new markets under my purview in collaboration with my teams. I hope that I will see destination South Africa soar to new heights in the Indian market and also in these new source markets. My years in India have been unforgettable and incredibly gratifying and I am happy to have a chance to continue to work with the Indian market even as the scope of my role has widened.”
Over the last six years as Country Manager for the national tourism board in India Hanneli has on various occasions been credited for her amazing success in the Indian market. She has been awarded numerous titles that include the PATWA’s Best Professional in Marketing during 2016 presented in March 2017, ‘Mahatma Gandhi Samman’ award for Strengthening the relations between India & South Africa in 2016 and the ‘Women Achiever’s Award 2015’ by The Young Environmentalists Programme Trust for her outstanding work and noteworthy achievements in the travel industry. The tourism board too has, under her stewardship, received a long list of accolades from the trade and consumer alike.
