South Africa up – Australia down
South Africa’s Environmental Affairs and Tourism Minister, Marthinus van Schalkwyk this week compared South Africa’s record tourism arrivals figure of 7.3m last year and 2.7m for the first four months of this year, a 16% increase on the same period last year and 377,000 more visitors, with Australia’s downtrend trend of a drop to 1.9 million for January to April, saying that South Africa had emerged as a star performer in the world tourism arena.
He said, “Even though the Soccer World Cup is four years away we are already seeing benefits from our elevated international profile”.
The Minister said that the largest source of South Africa’s growth was Africa, with the Middle East up 22% higher and 7% from Asia and Australasia.
He added, “The UK, Germany and America remain our most important long-haul markets and to date this year there has been growth from America and a 3.6% increase from Europe and we are sure to experience a broadening of our international tourism base due to our raised soccer profile.”
Report by The Mole
John Alwyn-Jones
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