South African Airways Vacations Cancels Its Mandela-Themed Vacation Package


Skift Take

It was respectful of SAAV to pull back from the promotion, but we hope it's a pause rather than a hard stop: The trip looks to be rather inspiring.

As opposed to the travel operators who are sure to quickly jump on the death of Nelson Mandela to promote their safari or hotel package, South African Airways moved quickly last night to remove a press release it had issued on PR Newswire prior to the former president and civil rights leader's death. The press release was originally issued on Thursday morning and was taken down shortly after it was announced that Nelson Mandela had died. Although no longer available on PR Newswire, many news websites that run press releases still had the release live late Thursday evening. The release had announced a trip that was a tie-in with the movie Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom, and took visitors on a 10-day trip to key destinations in South Africa linked to Mandela. The film starring Idri