South Africa unveils strong tourism growth
South Africa has reported a 10.2% growth in international visitors in 2012, more than double the global growth of 4%.
The increase took its annual international tourist arrivals to 9.1 million.
The number of tourists arriving from outside of the African continent grew by 15.1%, one of the highest growth rates in the world last year.
The UK is still its largest overseas market, with numbers up 4.2% to just over 438,000.
The figures were announced by the country’s President, Jacob Zuma, at a press conference in Cape Town yesterday.
Speaking to TravelMole earlier this month, Bashni Muthaya, South African Tourism regional director for Europe and the UK, thanked the UK trade for its support.
But she said there was still misconceptions among agents, operators and UK holidaymakers about the destination.
"There are still fundamental misconceptions, particularly about South Africa not being good value for money and about safety and security," she said.
"People don’t seem to know that South Africa offers budget and affordable accommodation but instead see it as a luxury destination. That’s not true."
She said South Africa continues to work hard to tackle safety and security concerns.
"We are working hard to communicate the safety measures put in place around the tourist spots and are making sure there is more visible policing and active safety initiatives to prevent incidents and to be responsive should a visitor become a victim," she said.
"The problems are very localised and our exit surveys show that over 80% of our visitors have a fantastic incident free trip.""
Muthaya said South Africa wants to promote itself as more than just a safari destination, focusing on other aspects such as adventure, lifestyle and design, art, music, culture and heritage, food and wine.
by Bev Fearis
Bev
Editor in chief Bev Fearis has been a travel journalist for 25 years. She started her career at Travel Weekly, where she became deputy news editor, before joining Business Traveller as deputy editor and launching the magazine’s website. She has also written travel features, news and expert comment for the Guardian, Observer, Times, Telegraph, Boundless and other consumer titles and was named one of the top 50 UK travel journalists by the Press Gazette.
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