‘Tourism growth in SA double that of world’

29 November 2006

South Africa’s growth in the number of international visitors was almost double that of the rest of the world in 2005 and the Western Cape experienced the highest-ever number of tourists in its traditionally off-season, according to the 2005/6 annual report of destination tourism agency Cape Town Routes Unlimited (CTRU).

Globally, international arrivals reached 808 million in 2005, representing a 5,5 percent growth from 766m in 2004.

South Africa attained a 10,3 percent growth rate in international arrivals in 2005 - from 6,7m in 2004 to 7,4m in 2005.

There was a 25,6 percent increase in total foreign direct spend, from R31,4 billion between January and September 2004 to R39,4bn during the same period in 2005, exceeding the global, Africa and regional average growth rates in receipts.

The Western Cape reflected a similarly high 7,43 percent growth rate in international arrivals between January and September 2005. The highest growth, of 13,1 percent, was recorded in the third quarter (July-September).

“Very encouraging was the above average growth (6,37 percent) in international arrivals within the low season months of April-May-June between 2004 and 2005,” said outgoing CTRU chief executive Noki Dube.

She added that full annual figures for 2005 were not available yet from SA Tourism, but it was expected that the province would have received about 1,6m international arrivals for the year, attaining 6,9 percent growth over 2004. October, November and December were traditionally high performing months.

CTRU identified potential growth opportunities for the region emerging from the African market - Nigeria and Kenya, in particular. Namibia remained a core African source market. Internationally, India, China and the Middle East were where the new market opportunities lay.

“The major drivers of international arrivals in the Western Cape are different to the national ones. While SA’s international arrivals are driven by the region - mainly Lesotho, Swaziland, Botswana and Zimbabwe - the Western Cape international arrivals are driven mainly by the UK, Germany and the US,” the annual report said.

The Western Cape achieved R8,9bn in foreign spend in 2004 and was expected to achieve R9,8bn in 2005, representing 10 percent growth. The province’s domestic tourism relied heavily on its own residents: 68 percent of the 2,4m trips produced by the Western Cape in that year remained in the province.

CTRU chief operating officer Barry Ackers said at a festive season briefing recently that the domestic market was the backbone of the tourism economy, as it was characterised by more frequent, repeat business.

He attributed the agency’s rosy festive outlook to the overall depreciation of the rand since December last year by 20 percent, which would lead to greater international tourism spend and also discourage locals from going overseas.

Airlines were adding international flights to Cape Town over the summer season (from 81 to 107 a week) - particularly British Airways, Lufthansa and Virgin - and there was a SA delegation to the Emirates planned to encourage its airline to apply for a licence to fly into Cape Town, Ackers said.

The tourist season, which spans a six-month period from October to March with most tourists beginning to arrive from December, was expected to generate 2,8m visitors this year - 1,8m of them domestic - he said.

# South Africa’s medical tourism industry has skyrocketed, with the number of overseas patients drawn by “scalpel safari” packages more than doubling in three years, an expert said.

The booming sector now rakes in $37-million (about R260-million) annually, Martin Kelly, president of the Association for Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeons, said, underlining that this was a fraction of the potential.

Industry estimates predict that about 20 000 medical tourists will visit South Africa in 2006, up from around 8 000 in 2003.

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