South Africa recorded a lion share of more than 7.7 million tourist arrivals from Africa out of the 9.9 million global statistics between the period of January and December, 2009.
In the recently released tourism statistics report for 2009, global tourists’ arrivals to South Africa grew by 3.6% in 2009 to reach 9,933,966 with countries on the African continent having the largest share amounting to about 7,762,921 travelers. Tourist arrivals from Africa represent about 78% of the total global tourist arrivals in South Africa for the year 2009.
The report stated that South Africa outperformed most international markets in 2009 and recorded growth in foreign arrivals of 3.6% in comparison with the figure in 2008.
Growth to South Africa was driven by healthy increases in arrivals from Africa air markets (3.3% growth), Africa land markets (5.7% growth), central and South America (3.5% growth) and Asia (3.7% growth).
However, contrary to the South Africa success, according to the United Nations World Tourism Organisation’s (UNWTO) January 2010 World Tourism Barometer, the global industry ended the year 2009 on a four percent decline in arrivals.
The performance of SA defies the decline of four percent that the global travel industry experienced last year as traveler markets reeled from the effects of the global financial crisis.
Meanwhile, Thandiwe January-Mclean, Chief Executive Officer of South African Tourism congratulated the tourism industry on growth in a year that would be remembered as one of the toughest ever for the global industry and added that South African Tourism’s increased investment in marketing efforts in Angola, China and India were sure to deliver arrivals dividends next year.
“Our 2009 arrivals put us tantalisingly close to our 10 million arrivals target this year. We will continue marketing our destination aggressively to embed awareness, stimulate the desire to visit South Africa and ensure that arrivals to South Africa continue to grow ahead of global trends,” she said.