Tag Archives: Australasia and Middle East

Hanneli Slabber, Regional General Manager, Asia, Australasia and Middle East, South African Tourism, has been honoured with the DDP Game Changer award. An industry veteran with over 25 years of experience in the tourism and hospitality sector, she served as the Country Head of South African Tourism for the India market. Her in-depth knowledge of South Africa’s beautiful landscape and the right kind of destination packaging has led to the creation of many global marketing campaigns, which helped boost travel numbers to South Africa. Slabber began her career in the hotel industry before moving to sales & marketing. With experiences in both inbound and outbound companies, she then moved to South African Tourism.

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. …