'Ballygunge, Alipore most affluent localities in India'

Going by the 2017 New World Wealth Report, Kolkata localities Ballygunge and Alipore alone have emerged as the most affluent in India with the total wealth in Kolkata amounting to nearly $290 billion. Kolkata is also home to 9,600 millionaires – which is more than Bangalore, Hyderabad, Pune, Chennai and Gurgaon.

The report has encouraged South African Tourism to tap into the HNI (High net worth individual) market of Kolkata through travel a agent training programme.

Devesh Kumar Agarwal, Chairman — Eastern Region, Travel Agents Association of India (TAAI) said in the city recently, besides Bengal, that their member travel agencies from Assam and Odisha too have seen an increased interest among customers regarding travelling to South Africa.

Kolkata is the only city where she was asked about South African literature, about major art galleries and museums, on her multi-city tour in India, said Hanneli Slabber, Country Manager India, South African Tourism, at a recent meeting in Kolkata.

Here, people seem keen to make the maximum use of their time while visiting South Africa, she said.

South African Tourism concluded the seventh edition of its annual travel trade training session in Kolkata recently.

Aimed at equipping travel agents with relevant tips to sell the destination, 'Learn South Africa' (Learn SA) was a 17-city training programme covering urban Metros as well as tier II and III markets.

According to reports, Indian leisure visitor numbers to South Africa surged 21.7 percent during 2016 to close at an arrivals figure of 95,377 (78,385 in 2015) and eighth among South Africa's international source markets. Overall spend by Indians (only in-country on-tour spends) in 2016 crossed 1.2 billions ZAR (South African Rand).