Gauteng tops with tourists
Lucille Davie
26 May 2004
Despite being the smallest province in the country, Gauteng is still the top province visited by tourists in 2003, according to the latest South African Tourism report.
Some 6.5 million tourists visited South Africa in 2003 and half of them preferred Gauteng as their holiday destination. Gauteng attracted 50.7 percent, more than double the Western Cape's 23.5 percent, and KwaZulu-Natal's 18.6 percent.
And, though where the Western Cape and KwaZulu-Natal experienced a drop in numbers - 25.4 percent and 19.2 percent respectively in 2002 - Gauteng's share of the visitors rose 1.1 percentage points, from 49.6 percent in 2002.
"Tourists" are defined by the report as visitors who do not necessarily spend a night in the province, and may include shoppers from Lesotho, Botswana, Namibia and Zimbabwe.
The number of visitors to the country grew by 1.2 percent between 2002 (6 429 583) and 2003 (6 504 890). This reflects a steady rise in
arrivals from 1998, with an average rise of three percent between 1998 and 2002.
Data shows that the increase is not driven by holiday-maker: 44.1 percent came for holiday in 2002, but that figure dropped to 36.6 percent in 2003. The increase has been driven by two other factors - visits to friends and family (VFR), which account for 20.5 percent of all trips, and shopping, 20.9 percent of visits.
Another factor is business. Johannesburg generates 16 percent of the country's GDP, and so, quite understandably, Gauteng attracts more business trips than other provinces do: more than 800 000.
Global tourism
Global tourism was down 2.8 percent - from 714 million in 2002 to 694 million in 2003. So South Africa has done well to have managed an increase, albeit small. Africa in general showed growth of five percent, with Morocco and Tunisia top of the list, with growth of six and two percent respectively.
The report gives four major
reasons why global tourism has shrunk: war, terrorism, the SARS virus, and a "soft global economy". Despite this, the report maintains, the global travel and tourism industry is still "a robust sector".
South Africa ranks 30th in international tourist arrivals. The top five countries are France, Spain, US, Italy and China. South Africa is the first African country on the list.
Gauteng
Gauteng also takes the top spot when it comes to bed nights. A total of 60 303 075 bed nights were spent in South Africa in 2003. Some 31 percent were spent in Gauteng, followed by the Western Cape at 26 percent and KwaZulu-Natal at 15 percent.
The Western Cape was the only province to experience a drop in bed nights, down from 30 percent in 2002, whereas Gauteng grew one percent.
Gauteng comes out tops too on spending. Of the R53.9-billion spent in South Africa by tourists in 2003, R18.7-billion was spent in Gauteng, compared to R8.1-billion in
the Western Cape, and R7.4-billion in KwaZulu-Natal. Gauteng experienced a rise in expenditure, up 0.6 percent against the Western Cape's 0.1 percent increase.
Shopping
It might come as a surprise to some that watching wildlife and visiting game parks is not the top tourist activity - shopping is, with 25.4 percent of the visit spent filling those plastic shopping bags. Next on the list was nightlife at 15.4 percent, with visiting family and friends at 12 percent, and wildlife ties with visiting the beach at seven percent.
There's a simple explanation for this, according to the report: "The bedrock of the tourism economy in South Africa remains the domestic market and land-based travel from neighbouring SADC countries."
The largest source of arrivals in 2003 were from Lesotho, at 1.28 million visitors, up 11 percent from 2002. Swaziland and Botswana contributed 800 000 visitors, with Zimbabwe next at just below 600 000 visitors.
Arrivals from the UK and Mozambique are fifth and sixth on the list, at just over 450 000 and 250 000 respectively.
Cricket World Cup
The Cricket World Cup took place in February and March 2003, played in South Africa, Zimbabwe and Kenya, with the final match and five games played in Johannesburg.
The report says: "It is estimated that the economic impact of the CWC on South Africa is terms of South African economic activity was R2-billion, and R1.1-billion in terms of net foreign spend."
Foreigners spent an average of R1 400 per day over 16 days, their usual length of stay in the country. Some combined their holiday with the CWC, staying over 22 days. South African spectators represented 42 percent of the total spend, running up a bill of R970 per day for each out-of-town visitor.
The report gives the country a very positive bill of health for the CWC: "Foreigners were generally very satisfied with the event and South
Africa. Reported crime incidents were at insignificant levels. Three percent of visitors experienced an incident of crime whilst here, while 2.8 percent of respondents had a bad experience.
"However, 99 percent (94 percent of those affected) of visitors said they would return again. Overall, safety and security, which was the foreigners' number one concern before they arrived here, showed the biggest improvement in rating from before to after the event."
The conclusion was excellent: 99 percent of foreigners would visit the country again, while 99 percent said they would recommend South Africa to others.
Source: City of Johannesburg website
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