South Africa's tourism
sector has continued to perform impressively in terms of arrivals growth and
total foreign direct spend generated.However, provincial spread, seasonality
patterns and length of stay are areas of South Africa's tourism sector that
require attention.
This was the message from
Marthinus van Schalkwyk, Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism, at a
media briefing today at the headquarters of South African Tourism in Sandton.
Minister Van Schalkwyk said
he was encouraged by the industry's performance last year and remained
optimistic that South Africa would achieve its target of 10 million arrivals in
2010.The South African industry continued to perform well in spite of
pressures exerted by the global financial crisis that had seen growth in the
global industry shrink to 1.3 percent last year.
"South Africa had recorded 5.5
percent arrivals growth over the period," the Minister said."I am especially
encouraged by the fact that foreign direct spend in 2008 had grown by an
estimated 23.5 percent, bringing the total revenue generated by tourism to more
than R356 billion since 2003," Minister Van Schalkwyk said.
A total of 9,591,828
foreigners visited South Africa in 2008 compared to 9,090,881 in 2007. Regional
and short haul tourists remained the largest and most lucrative market for the
South African industry, Ms Didi Moyle, acting CEO of South African Tourism,
said.
Arrivals from Africa grew
seven percent in 2008 with Mozambique (13.2 percent), Angola (15.3 percent) and
Swaziland (4.7 percent) continuing to show strong growth.
African land markets last
year contributed an estimated R43.5 billion in total foreign direct spend to
the economy.
The Americas region
performed well with a 5.2 percent increase in 2008. However, growth declined in
the Asia and Australasia (-3.2 percent) and Europe (-0.5 percent) regions.
South African Tourism's
mandate for its Tourism Growth Strategy (TGS) is to grow the number of visitors
to South Africa; to encourage visitors to stay for longer; to stimulate higher
tourist spending; to encourage tourism to the -under-visited- provinces; to
ease seasonality patterns; and to transform the industry so that historically
marginalised communities may enjoy the lucrative rewards of the industry.
Minister Van Schalkwyk said
the industry had done exceptionally well in some TGS categories last year. However,
seasonality, provincial spread and length of stay remained areas that required
attention. Although length of stay had improved to 8.2 nights per visitor last
year (against 7.9 nights in 2007), the figure had only managed to reach its
2006 level. Overall length of stay has declined steadily since 2002, when it
was 10.1 nights per visitor. The number of provinces visited showed a slight
decline from 1.3 provinces in 2007 to 1.2 provinces in 2008. Six years ago
tourists visited an average of 1.8 provinces.
Last year, Gauteng (32.3%
visitor nights) and the Western Cape (26.9% visitor nights) were the most
popular provinces visited and they also accounted for the bulk of expenditure
on accommodation.
The third most popular
province was KwaZulu-Natal with 10.7 percent of visitor nights. The most
under-visited province in the country last year was the Northern Cape with 0.9
percent visitor nights.
Although air arrivals had
shown a steady improvement in seasonality since 2003, there had been a slight
worsening in total seasonal spread last year. Seasonality indices were down .46
points year on year.
South Africa is set to host numerous global events including the Indian Premier League, the ICC Champions Trophy, the British Lions Tour, the Confederations Cup and the 2010 FIFA World CupTM. "These events will help the industry weather the global economic storm and it gives us an opportunity to prove our global competitiveness. Our successful hosting of these events will also entrench South Africa both as a capable and a desirable leisure destination," the Minister said.
more information: http://www.southafrica.net/
