South Africa had a 14,5 percent increase in foreign tourism arrivals between January and September 2006, representing 765,675 more visitors than in the corresponding period in 2005. Revealing these figures at the…
South Africa had a 14,5 percent increase in foreign tourism arrivals between January and September 2006, representing 765,675 more visitors than in the corresponding period in 2005. Revealing these figures at the Meetings Africa business tourism conference in Johannesburg, Environmental Affairs and Tourism Minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk said South Africa had beaten its best performance yet again.
“Over six million people – 6,055,726 – visited South Africa between January and September, suggesting that we are well on track to surpass the annual record that we set in 2006. Once more, the largest source of growth was Africa, with an increase of 18,3 percent in arrivals from the African continent. However, we also saw strong growth in arrivals from North America, with an increase of 9,7 percent representing almost 20 000 more visitors,” he said.
Although off a low base, he said, South Africa saw a massive 42,4 percent increase in visitors from the Russian Federation, 24,1 percent more visitors from Hungary and 17,4 percent more visitors from Finland.
“This shows that we have been successful at achieving broader market penetration on the European continent, beyond our traditional source markets in Western Europe. The growth rate for arrivals from the continent as a whole was 4,6 percent, which was just ahead of the global average growth rate of 4,5 percent for the year.” the Minister added.
“We are pleased with having achieved a 4,5 percent increase in arrivals from Asia, in particular with 17,5 percent more visitors from India and excellent growth in arrivals from Japan, Thailand and Singapore. However, a decrease in arrivals from China, Malaysia and the Phillipines suggest that we need to improve our efforts to attract visitors from these key markets,” he said.
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