In a bid to promote South Africa as an ideal holiday destination when summer holidays are round the corner, 28 suppliers from South Africa Tourism visited the city for a workshop at a city hotel on Saturday.
The theme chosen by them was the FIFA football World Cup, which will be held on the African continent for the first time, this year.
To add value to their visit, they carried with them Zakumi, a leopard with green hair, which is the official mascot of the World Cup.
"We're doing this programme as an awareness drive where the official mascot has travelled all the way from South Africa. The tournament is scheduled to take place from June 11 to July 11 this year, and Zakumi has been visiting cities such as Mumbai, Chennai, New Delhi and Ahmedabad where road shows have been organised," said Medha Sampat, country manager, South African Tourism.
She said, "We have been getting good response from the Gujarati public of Ahmedabad ."
For the first time this year, FIFA has also roped in an Indian travel agent in order to make the process of selling passes for the matches easier for Indian fans.
"However, the response has not been so good in Ahmedabad. We have only managed to get a few queries and 28 confirmations uptil now.”
