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UK surge leads South Africa`s tourism growth

Source: – Tourism update, 29/10/2015

Tourist arrivals from the UK are showing positive growth for the first
time in months.

Tourist arrivals from the UK were up 17% year on year for the month of
July, while year to date, arrivals are now showing positive growth for
the first time in months. As of the end of July, after 7 months SA has
seen 227 252 tourist arrivals from the UK, compared with 226 223 for
the same period last year. That positive result stems from the surge
in July when 25 120 visitors last year grew to 29 486 this July.

This is according to the latest arrival stats published this week by
Statistics South Africa. July was also the first month that overseas
arrivals and tourist arrivals showed growth, with month-on-month
growth of 2% and 1% respectively. Year to date, overseas arrivals are
still down 9%.

The UK is South Africa`s largest source market, with 227 252 tourists
arriving from the UK this year to date, compared with 166 759 from the
US and 128 346 from Germany, South Africa`s second and third biggest
markets. The market is also more than double the size of the entire
Asian market, which has seen 133 519 arrivals to SA as of the end of
July.

Tourism arrivals to South Africa took a knock last year. The decline
has been attributed to the outbreak of Ebola in West Africa as well as
new immigration regulations, particularly the requirement that people
apply in-person for visas, which took effect last year, and the
requirement that minors travel with an unabridged birth certificate,
or the equivalent thereof, which took effect in June this year.

The British currency today buys 18 % more Rands than at the beginning
of July last year. How much higher the growth would have been without
the new regulations and Ebola is he question economists are asking.

The UK market was unaffected by the visa requirement and has also
proved more resilient than other markets following the outbreak of Ebola.

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