Tourism industry in South Africa is continuously witnessing growth in tourist arrivals and tourism receipts on account of its adorable scenic beauty, cultural diversity and value-for-money services.
The Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism, Marthinus van Schalkwyk, said that the South African tourism industry had been continuously displaying impressive performance in terms of growth in the tourist arrivals as well as the foreign direct spending, as reported by etravelblackboard.
While the recession resulted in slowdown of growth to merely 1.3% in 2008 in the worldwide tourism sector, South Africa witnessed 5.5% increase in tourist arrivals during the year. As compared to 9,090,881 overseas tourists in 2007, a total of 9,591,828 tourists visited the country in 2008. Foreign direct spending was also estimated to have surged at 23.5%, taking the aggregate tourism revenue to over R356 Billion since 2003.
Short haul and regional tourists continued to be the most attractive and largest market for the tourism sector. Gauteng and Western Cape were the most widely visited provinces by the overseas tourists in 2008, while KwaZulu-Natal was the third most widely visited province of South Africa.
Scenic beauty, marvelous outdoors, cultural diversity, sunny and pleasant climate, and the reputation of South Africa for offering value-for-money services to the tourists have made the country a fastest emerging leisure and business tourist destination in the world. The country indeed represents diverse culture, climate, infrastructure and tourist activities, which propelled the number of tourist arrivals.
The industry performed outstandingly in some of the segments of Tourism Growth Strategy (TGS) in 2008. The South African Tourism has obligated its TGS to increase the number of tourists in the country, to propel the tourist expenditure and to stimulate tourists to stay for a longer duration.
Besides, the hosting of Indian Premier League (IPL), ICC Champions Trophy and FIFA World Cup 2010 are presenting huge potential for the future growth in the South African tourism industry.
According to a Research Analyst at RNCOS, “Increased number of tourist arrivals enabled South Africa’s tourism industry to grow in 2008; however, seasonality patterns, provincial spread and the duration of stay calls for the attention of the tourism sector. Particularly, transformation of the industry and the ease of seasonality patterns are required in order to make the traditionally marginalized communities to enjoy the South African tourism industry’s attractive rewards.”
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