The South African tourism industry is known for its quality hotel services, medical expertise, and world-class infrastructure and is poised to see increased growth due to 2010 FIFA World Cup.
Tourism has evolved as one of the most widespread activities in the world, said Iraj Abedian, Chief Executive of Pan-African Capital Holdings. Abedian added that South Africa had reaped benefits from this, reported The Times.
A growth of 13.9% was seen in the tourism sector in 2006, whereas the entire global tourism market grew only 4.5%. According to a research by the South Africa Tourism, the country witnessed 6.9% annual growth during 2002-2006.
35.4 Million tourists visited South Africa from 2002 to 2006 and out of these, 23 Million visitors came for leisure activities, and 10 Million for long stay. Remaining visitors came either to see friends or relatives or to go for shopping (most remarkably from the Southern African Development Community region), or for business reasons.
Most long-haul tourists were from far off places like Asia, the USA, Europe and Australia. The importance of tourism as revenue generator was directly associated with socio-political change in South Africa. Also, South Africa is well recognized for its efficient tourism infrastructure, public safety and world-class hotels.
South Africa is number one choice for medical tourists due to its quality standards of medical care, trained plastic or cosmetic surgeons and tourist attractions. It is a popular destination for medical tourists, especially for those who choose to have plastic surgery abroad. Hence, the country is also known as scalpel safari.
Industry experts are of the opinion that tourism is a labor-intensive industry and the country required to pay more attention to this. Tourism industry offers more job opportunities as compared to manufacturing industries. It is a fact that South Africa tourism industry has shown remarkable success but a huge potential is yet to be explored.
According to a recent report “South African Tourism Sector Analysis” by RNCOS, the South African tourism industry is growing at a phenomenal rate. The arrival of foreign tourists in the country is escalating year on year. It is also anticipated that country’s tourism market will go up by 14% of GDP by 2014. For this, the South African government is investing five to six times more than what it had initially planned. Also, since South Africa is the host country for the 2010 FIFA World Cup, the government is also paying attention to infrastructure development, especially transport.
Related Market Research Reports:
South African Tourism Sector Analysis
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