Netflix has partnered with South African Tourism to explore collaborative opportunities to showcase South African-made stories to attract international visitors to the country.
The global streaming service and production company has, as a result, launched a curated collection of over 80 South African films, documentaries, series and reality TV shows created by some of the country’s most prolific talent.
The tourism industry was one of the most hit by the Covid-19 Pandemic forcing South African Tourism to look for innovative ways to keep the country as a desirable travel destination for international visitors.
The ‘Made in South Africa’ content collection honours South African storytellers and talent who have helped raise the country’s creative industry.
Netflix announced the collection following a panel session organised by SA Tourism at Africa’s Travel & Tourism Summit in Johannesburg and Durban on Tuesday, September 21, 2021. In addition, the streaming service shared the results of a survey called Cultural Affinity Study.
The survey revealed that subscribers from Canada, Germany, the United States, the United Kingdom, Brazil, and France were 3.1 times more likely to choose South Africa as their number one destination and 5.6 times more likely to learn a local language after watching South African content.
Mzilikazi Themba Khumalo, the Chief Marketing Officer of South African Tourism, stated that the partnership with Netflix would help to strengthen South Africa’s soft power and export the African way of life. “It is so the rest of the world can see how talented, young, and fresh we are, and we can export the full tapestry from a cultural standpoint.”
Netflix’s Director of Public Policy for Sub-Saharan Africa, Shola Sanni, said the ‘Made in South Africa’ collection will be available to Netflix’s over 209 million subscribers from over 190 countries and will include shows from the Cultural Affinity survey as well as popular shows and films like My Octopus Teacher, Blood & Water, JIVA!, How to Ruin Christmas: The Wedding, Trippin’ with the Kandasamys, I Am All Girls, Queen Sono, Kings of Joburg, Santana, Riding with Sugar, Seriously Single and many more.”
