Marketing Destination South Africa Pays Off, Tourist Arrivals Increase

(Image Source: Travel Weekly)

Tourism remains key to South Africa’s economic development strategy and the substantial growth in tourist arrivals is testament to how dedication to marketing Destination SA is paying off, says Environmental Affairs Minister Edna Molewa.

Molewa made the annoucement when she chaired a media briefing by the International Co-operation, Trade and Security cluster of ministries to give an update on the cluster’s Programme of Action (PoA) to achieve the goals of the National Development Plan (NDP).

Tourist arrival figures have gone up by 14.8 per cent this year compared with 2015.

“Marketing South Africa as a premier domestic and international tourist destination has been central to our economic diplomacy efforts,” Molewa said.

Statistics from the Department of Tourism in September showed that 822,416 tourist arrivals were recorded for July 2016, up by 89,525 tourist compared with the same month last year, bringing total tourist arrivals for the first seven months of 2016 to 5,791,504, an increase of 751,388 over the same period last year.

Molewa said the growth in tourism resulted partly from innovative marketing strategies and the tourism incentives given to small businesses. The operational environment for tourism had also improved.