The Sandton City Shopping Festival Sale, a shopping and accommodation package launched to the domestic and international travel market for the first time this year, started last Thursday and runs until February 2.

The sale is being marketed in conjunction with Thompsons Tours.

The January sale package links into a year-round Sandton City Shopping Experience that was first launched last October and runs until April.

It is a three-day accommodation and shopping package run in conjunction with a range of Sandton hotels from the Michelangelo to the City Lodge.

Prices start at R502 for three nights' accommodation plus a R1000 Sandton City shopping bag with vouchers for shops, food and entertainment. Theron said the idea for the packages sprang from Sandton City, which wanted to grow its weekend shopping market because its large corporate market tends to result in busy weekdays and quieter weekends.

The packages are expected to be particularly appealing for visitors from elsewhere in Africa, many of whom come to SA to shop because of the variety of goods available in SA that are not obtainable in many other African countries. The latest available Statistics SA figures for October last year showed visitors to SA from Africa's mainland rose by 11,6% over October 2001 to 378529, representing almost two-thirds of all foreign visitors.

Almost 90% of visitors to SA from mainland Africa said they had come on holiday, as opposed to business, work or study.