South African Food Initiative

South African travel and leisure is placed to get an additional boost this current year as a result of record numbers of visitors from India. As outlined by Ms Haneli Slabber, Country Director for South African Tourism says that South Africa is going to be focusing on a total of 100, 000 Indian travelers in 2012.

During 2011, South Africa observed a 26 % increase in the number of Indian tourists achieving an 12-monthly total of just over 90, 000 throughout the year. The most up-to-date studies suggest that over the first couple of months of 2012, the amount of Indian holiday-makers coming to South Africa has observed an 18 percent increase. In The month of january and Feb . of this year an overall total of 14, 001 holiday-makers visited South Africa from India compared to just 11, 864 the prior year. Around 8, 500 tourists are expected to visit from the state of Kerala by itself.

In response to the increasing numbers of Indian, Chinese and Brazilian people traveling to South Africa, the South African Chefs Association (SACA) have introduced a whole new initiative in partnership with SA Tourim which means holidaymakers will be able to anticipate enjoying Chinese, Indian and South American food whilst in the country. The initiative sees the release of a brand new cook book called 'Guide to Vegetarian, Vegan and Jain Dining in South Africa'. The booklet includes 50 tested recipes from leading South African chefs, all of them prepared using solely fresh ingredients sourced locally.

This SACA cookbook is ready to be shipped to around 6000 chefs within South Africa allowing them to cater to guests from emerging tourist markets. The book describes special nutritional demands of vegetarians, vegans and also jains and indicates which food items they cannot consume. There is also a short description of these ethnicities. The recipes will mean that many hotels and restraunts will be able to decide on a handful of dishes to incorporate on their menus which will cater to the requirements of these holidaymakers in addition to more mainstream visitors.