Tourist arrivals keep growing
4 November 2008
Almost 5.5-million foreign tourists visited South Africa in the first seven months of this year, a 7.8% increase over the 5.1-million foreigners who visited the country in the same period in 2007, Environmental Affairs and Tourism Minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk said on Monday.
Speaking at the 7th annual Tourism Conference in Johannesburg, Van Schalkwyk said that the tourism industry's outstanding performance was underscored by its growing contribution to South Africa's economy.
"The contribution of tourism to South Africa's gross domestic product (GDP) is estimated to have increased from R137.6-billion in 2006 to R159.6-billion in 2007," the minister said. "The number of jobs created directly and indirectly in the economy through tourism increased by 5% from 896 900 in 2006 to 941 000 in 2007."
Analysis of the arrivals figures for January to July show that growth from South Africa's traditional tourist markets remains strong, boosted by increases in arrivals from new markets, Van Schalkwyk said.
"North America recorded an increase of 11.7% compared to the first seven months of 2007. The figures for Europe show growth of 7.3%, with France still recovering strongly and recording an increase of 16.8%. Arrivals from Australasia grew by 10.9% and Asia showed an increase of 6.5%."
Challenges
At the same time, Van Schalkwyk warned that the global economic environment and rising awareness of climate change would have an effect on South Africa's tourism industry.
On the global front, challenges facing the industry included "the possibility of an economic recession in some of our key markets, the impacts of climate change on worldwide travel patterns, exchange rate fluctuations and restricted aviation capacity."
On the local front, Van Schalkwyk identified weak service levels as one of the industry's biggest challenges.
An Accenture report released in 2007 ranked South Africa's standards of service - in the area of "soft skills" such as business etiquette, customer care, and service attitude - as the worst in the world.
In response, the Department of Tourism and the Tourism Business Council, in consultation with international experts, had developed a wide-ranging strategy to attain service excellence in the tourism industry.
Unveiling the Draft National Service Excellence Strategy for Tourism in South Africa, Van Schalkwyk said the plan would address the country's "skills supply, public awareness and education on minimum standards, the measurement of standards, and the creation of an efficient public feedback mechanism.
"Customer satisfaction is not something we can compromise on," he said.
SAinfo reporter
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