Although Jozi may be SA’s most visited city, according to the 2017 edition of the Mastercard Global Destination Cities Index, Cape Town followed only a few cities behind.
While South Africa hasn’t made it to the global top 10 list, it did star twice in the regional top 10 list for the Middle East and Africa.
Johannesburg took second place to Dubai with Joburg seeing 4.57 million international overnight visitors in 2016. The Mother City ranked 6th, with 1.52 million overnight visitors in 2016.
Dubai also dominated in terms of overall tourist spend, with visitors to the city last year having spent a whopping $28.5-billion. Cape Town raked in an easy $1.26-billion, while Johannesburg saw around double that amount with $2.56-billion.
Take a look at the top 10 cities in the Middle East and Africa region according to the Mastercard Destination Cities Index 2017:
– Dubai, UAE – 14.87 million visitors in 2016
– Johannesburg, South Africa – 4.57 million visitors in 2016
– Riyadh, Saudi Arabia – 4.43 million visitors in 2016
– Abu Dhabi, UAE – 2.98 million visitors in 2016
– Tehran, Iran – 1.64 million visitors in 2016
– Cape Town, South Africa – 1.52 million visitors in 2016
– Beirut, Lebanon – 1.22 million visitors in 2016
– Amman, Jordan – 1.08 million visitors in 2016
– Lagos, Nigeria – 1.04 million visitors in 2016
– Tel Aviv, Israel – 0.99 million visitors in 2016
Photography Pexels