SOUTHERN AFRICA - Kaleidoscope of the great outdoors

SOUTHERN AFRICA - Kaleidoscope of the great outdoors

Vastly improved air connections with the outside world and exchange rates which favour European and American visitors have helped generate a healthy growth of incoming tourism and, despite economic and social difficulties, the country has responded with a package which truly meets market needs.

Incentives can, for instance, centre themselves on the amazing Sun City complex, a modern fantasyland where you forget the real world within minutes of arrival.

Opulence of stunning proportions, word-class dining, leisure and golfing facilities, a vast casino and yet it all comes at prices to fit even the most hard-pressed company budgets.

Blessed with a great climate usually hot, with low humidity and great natural beauty, South Africa is a land of myriad charms, symbolised for many by Cape Town's awe-inspiring Table Mountain. Here's a city where British, Dutch, Portuguese and French influences are all jumbled together with native African culture and a laid-back lifestyle a place where going out for a bike ride, playing a round of golf or a few sets of tennis are considered important components of everyday life.

Take the coastal Garden Route or organise a winery visit in the picturesque Dutch colonial township of Stellenbosch. Durban is renowned for surfing beaches, nightlife and cuisine introduced by Africa's largest Indian community while, most enjoyably reached by an overnight on the famous Blue Train from Cape Town, mighty Johannesburg is Africa's biggest city after Cairo and Lagos and is close by the nation's administrative capital of Pretoria, with its profusion of monuments recording the epic era of the voortrekker pioneers. Of major appeal for incentives are South Africa's many game reserves none more so than the vast Kruger National Park and the private Mala Mala.

Lions, leopards, cheetahs, baboons, hyenas, elephants, hippos and rhinos account for a vast daily consumption of film and videotape while game lodges provide not only overnight resting spots but a wealth of team-building socialising round the campfire and the chance to learn native dancing and folklore at firs hand. Wildlife and the natural environment are also neighbouring Zambia's big draw. Here are 19 national parks and 33 game management areas plus the mighty Zembezi and its vast Victoria Falls. White-water rafting, bunjee jumping, canoeing, horseback trail-riding, micro-lighting and sundowner cruises are just some of the activities centred around the river and Lake Kariba. Zimbabwe, on the river's opposite shore, shares all these delights and offers more of its own, explaining why it is well-established as one of Africa's most popular destinations for overseas visitors. The country's capital, Harare, offers such incentive programme alternatives as sundowner cocktails in the atmospheric setting of the massive rock outcrops of Domboshawa, with their bushmen paintings; a game lunch or dinner where kudu, ostrich and wildebeest could be on the menu; a day's excursion to learn the art of carving at Tengenenge Sculptor Community; riding elephants and feeding black rhinos at Imere Game Ranch; an ostrich farm visit; shopping in Mbare People's Market and enjoying a pleasant day at the faces in Borrowdale.

To browse all our hotels in Southern Africa, please visit: http://www.ghotw.com/south-africa/

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