More than 3 355 904 travellers passed through South Africa’s ports of entry and exit from June 2018 -June 2019, indicating an increase of foreign visitors making their way to the country. According to Statistics SA’s latest tourism and migration report, foreign arrivals have increased by 0.3% year-on-year.
This equals an increase of 1.16-million travellers.
The ten countries listed below have contributed more than 72% of the travellers who have visited South Africa, and numbers have increased for seven of these, including India, Brazil, Canada, Germany, China, Australia and the UK.
India has contributed the largest increase, with 14.7%, while numbers from France have decreased from 6 833 travellers last June to 6 519 travellers this year.
As of June, the distribution of overseas visitors include:
– Europe, 63 589 (41.2%)
– North America, 40 205 (26.0%)
– Asia, 27 928 (18.1%)
– Australasia, 10 292 (6.7%)
– Central and South America, 7 970 (5.2%)
– and the Middle East, 4 377 (2.8%)
The ten leading overseas countries in terms of the number of travellers visiting South Africa in June 2019 were:
– United States, 36 490 (23.6%)
– United Kingdom, 19 711 (12.8%)
– Germany, 9 748 (6.3%)
– India, 9 315 (6.0%)
– Australia, 9 064 (5.9%)
– China, 6 721 (4.4%)
– France, 6 519 (4.2%)
– Brazil, 5 645 (3.7%)
– The Netherlands, 4 859 (3.1%)
– Canada, 3 715 (2.4%)
According to the World Tourism Organisation, the period between May and August is peak tourism season in most of the world’s major tourism destinations.
Tourism numbers to the Western Cape specifically may boost if a partnership between The City of Cape Town and the local government of New York proves successful.
Marking the culmination of a shared marketing agreement between Cape Town and New York City, Enver Duminy, CEO of Cape Town Tourism and Alderman James Vos, Mayoral Committee Member for Economic Opportunities and Asset Management, including Tourism, visited Cape Town International Airport (CTIA) to oversee a campaign installation promoting a partnership between Cape Town and New York City.
The co-marketing agreement between the two global tourism giants is spearheaded by their respective destination marketing organisations, Cape Town Tourism and NYC & Company. The agreement has seen the organisations pool their resources to market each other. In New York, Cape Town’s many attractions have appeared on bus shelters and kiosks across New York’s five boroughs, introducing US locals to what the Mother City has to offer.
Picture: Pixabay