South Africa had more than 2,7-million tourist arrivals between January and April, Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism Minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk revealed on Wednesday.
This was the first time arrivals had broken through the 2,5-milion mark in the first four months of the year, he quoted from the latest tourism review. He was speaking at Nelspruit in Mpumalanga on World Tourism Day.
”Our first quarter figures indicate that we are well on target to surpass last year’s record tourism-arrival figure of 7,3-million.”
Even though the Soccer World Cup was four years away, the country was already seeing the benefits of its elevated international profile, said Van Schalkwyk.
In 1998, there were just more than 1,8-million first-quarter arrivals, he said.
”We have seen a 16% increase in arrivals across all territories compared with the same period last year, which translates into almost 377 000 more visitors.”
The Africa and Middle East regions had shown the most growth at 21,9%, followed by Asia and Australasia at 7,1%.
”The United Kingdom, Germany and the United States remain our most important long-haul markets.”
So far this year, there had been continued growth in all months from the US and a 3,6% increase from Europe.
Although Brazil had shown strong performance since 2004, there was a ”dramatic” increase of 32% in the number of tourists in the first quarter of 2006.
”The data reveals that our international competitiveness compares favourably with other countries,” said Van Schalkwyk, pointing out that Australia had only 1,9-million visitors in the first quarter.
He said a comprehensive tourism skills audit was being conducted to sustain the country’s growth in tourism and ensure it did not run into capacity constraints. A national skills conference was scheduled for October.
Events in the next month would focus on readiness for the 2010 Soccer World Cup.
These included a national tournament accommodation workshop and a national workshop on economic opportunities of the tournament.
”Government has agreed with [world soccer governing body] Fifa’s Local Organising Committee that 30% of its budget of over $400-million (about R3,06-billion) must be spent on procuring goods and services from SMMEs [small, medium and micro Enterprises],” said Van Schalkwyk. — Sapa