News Articles

Foreign tourist numbers see big dip

Source: Megan Ellis – iafrica.com, 05/08/2015


The latest report from Statistics SA has shown yet another significant
dip in foreign tourist arrivals.
The latest statistics are from a year-on-year comparison for foreign
tourist arrivals in April 2014 and April 2015.
According to StatsSA, foreign arrivals decreased by 10.6%, from 1 308
531 in April 2014 to 1 169 290 in April 2015.
Between March and April 2015, there was also a decrease in foreign
arrivals. Foreign visitors decreased by 5.4% between March and April,
from 1 235 571 to 1 169 290.
The dip comes on top of the decline that was already seen in Q1 2015.
Tourism Minister Derek Hanekom has spoken out about the dip in tourism
numbers, confirming that there has been a drop and that this decline
is in part due to the visa laws implemented in October 2014.
The impact of the child visa laws which were implemented on June 1,
2015, has not yet been confirmed by a StatsSA report. These results
should be released later this year.
However, industry experts believe the impact will be seriously
detrimental to the tourism sector.
Research done by Grant Thornton reported an expected R1.4-billion loss
in direct tourism spend in 2015, with a R4.1-billion loss to the
country's GDP.


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