Tourism officials in Eden were upbeat yesterday at the close of the Vakantiebeurs Leisure Tourism Show in the Netherlands, where they advertised the delights of the Garden Route and surrounds last week.

Garden Route and Klein Karoo Tourism, Eden district municipality‘s regional tourism body, joined the Western Cape Tourism and Cape Town Routes Unlimited stand at the show, held from January 13 to 18 in Utrecht. The heads of a number of other Garden Route tourism bodies also attended.

"More than 82000 visitors had seen the show by Friday, excluding people who came on the trade day," said Mossel Bay Tourism head Marcia Holm, who was upbeat about the short to medium-term future of tourism in the Southern Cape.

"The (foreign) public is still showing a high degree of interest in South Africa. Many said instead of frequent, short-haul holidays to destinations like Spain and the Canary Islands, they would now be taking less frequent but longer holidays in long-haul destinations like South Africa."

Eden regional tourism manager Fathima Hassain was equally optimistic. "People are still travelling and not much has been affected by the economic crisis, with tour operators signing a lot of business."

Hassain said Eden‘s focus was to continue ensuring that the region remained the destination of choice.

Eden‘s new regional tourism guide was distributed at Vakantiebeurs and the region features extensively in a new tourism publication, The Travelution Magazine, distributed in Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg.

Eden municipal manager Godfrey Louw attended the magazine‘s launch and said it was well received by the travel industry. Oudtshoorn Tourism head Cyril Clark said the magazine flew off the show stands.

Cheryl Nortje, of Cheryl‘s Homestays in Oudtshoorn, also advertised her business at the show, courtesy of the "walking the end to poverty" initiative of the Netherlands-based Dreamcatcher foundation, which supports women-in-tourism initiatives worldwide.

"I met up with Cheryl and she told me she was excited by the amount of business and contracts she had signed," Hassain said.

"This is exactly the type of development the Eden district municipality encourages and endorses and we have ensured that tourism development is high on our agenda for this year."

The Vakantiebeurs travel show heralds the start of Europe‘s tourism show season, from January to March. Tourism officials from the Southern Cape will also attend shows in Dublin and Belgium.