Nominal growth in January-October tourist arrivals, sustained by good growth in Asian markets

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Created on Thursday, 01 March 2012 17:03

The figures for foreign tourist arrivals for Jan - Oct 2011 have been released. Jan - Oct ’11 tourist arrivals grew by 2,6% compared with the same period in 2010. The main contributor was Africa land arrivals. Tourist arrivals from Europe and the Americas continued to decline, while those from Asia continued to increase.

Total tourist arrivals to South Africa for the period Jan - Oct 2011 increased by 2,6% (172,110 arrivals) to 6,823,517 - compared with 6,651,407 arrivals for Jan - Oct 2010. African land arrivals increased by 7,2% (323,612). Overseas tourist arrivals declined by 4,3% with 77,385 fewer arrivals from Jan - Oct 2011 compared with the same period in 2010.

Europe remained the top performing overseas source region in terms of tourist arrivals, followed by the Americas, and Asia and Australasia.

Germany was the only key European source region to achieve growth; overall Europe (including UK) arrivals continued to decline.
Arrivals from Europe declined by 5,6% (59,805) to 1,000,232 arrivals compared with 1,060,037 arrivals during the same period in 2010.

UK arrivals declined by 8.8% (32,378) but it remained the top performing European market with 333,836 arrivals. The next best performing European source market was Germany, which saw a 9,2% increase in arrivals to 181,975. The Netherlands was next with 87,947 arrivals, a 12,2% decline. France declined 10.5% to 84,805 arrivals. Italy arrivals declined by 2,7% to 44,635.

Arrivals from Central and South America continued to decline, while arrivals from North America remained virtually static.
Tourist arrivals from the Americas declined by 9% (35,360) to 355,855 arrivals, with Central and South America arrivals declining by 35% (37,190) to 69,174.

Brazil remained the top performing market in Central and South America. Arrivals from Brazil declined by 6% (-2,687) to 42,216. Arrivals from Argentina, Chile and Mexico continued their sharp decline. Argentina was Central and South America’s next best performing market. Arrivals from Argentina declined 42,8% (8,518) to 11,388. Arrivals from Mexico declined 83,3% (12,874) to 2,587. Chile arrivals declined 60,6% (-4,117) to 2,680.

Tourist arrivals from North America remained level, increasing 0,6% to 286,681. US arrivals remained static at 240,642. Canada arrivals increase by 4% to 46,037.

Asia’s growth was driven by good growth in some of its major markets. Arrivals from Australasia continued to decline.
Asia arrivals increased by 12% (25,781) to 241,478. The top performing Asia markets were India, China (including Hong Kong) and Japan. India arrivals grew 29,9% (17,322) to 75,230. China arrivals increased by 18,9% (10,571) to 66,445. Japan arrivals declined 9,8% (2,412) to 22,251.

Arrivals from Australasia declined by 5,7% (5,986) to 98,905. Arrivals from Australia declined 5,4% (4,830) to 84,119. New Zealand arrivals declined by 6,7% to 14,551.

African air markets increased by 5,3% (14,611) to 290,788 arrivals. The biggest growth in the African air markets came from Nigeria with arrivals increasing 35,7% (13,592) to 51,663 arrivals. Angola was the next best performing African air market with 31,492 arrivals, a decline of 2,4% over the same period in 2010. DRC arrivals grew 12,8% to 27,980. Kenya arrivals increased by 3,2% to 24,199.

In the smaller African air markets, growth was achieved from Tanzania, Mauritius, Uganda, Turkey, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Seychelles, with all other smaller air markets declining. Arrivals from Tanzania increased by 51,8% to 23,459.

Africa land arrivals increased by 7,2% (323,612) to 4,815,979. The top performing Africa land market was Zimbabwe, which grew 2,8% (34,440) to 1,276,369. Arrivals from Lesotho increased 21,5% (224,497) to 1,267,591. Mozambique arrivals increased by 2,9% to 910,401. Swaziland arrivals increased by 8,6% to 575,014. Botswana arrivals declined by 4,8% to 389,353. Namibia arrivals increased by 2,8% to 157,199. Zambia arrivals increased by 1,5% to 131,000. Arrivals from Malawi increased by 6,7% to 109,052.