German arrivals on the up

Source: Tourism Update, 11/09/2017

German arrivals continue to grow, even during SA’s winter months.
German visitors to South Africa have increased by 15% according to the
latest report released by Statistics SA.
The German market has shown a steady increase over the last few
months, with arrivals up by 24% for the month of June compared with
June last year.
Growth in May was 5% and April 15.91%.
There are many contributing factors to the steady increase in arrivals
from this key source market, one being the attractive exchange rate
when visiting SA, the country’s warmer climate and the similarity in
dialect.
Peter Munzig, Managing Director of Travel Management & Consulting in
Germany, said there had been a substantial increase in 2016 vs. 2015
in German arrivals, and tour operators had reported that they expected
another increase this year.
According to Munzig, South Africa is popular for many reasons,
including game viewing, the country’s diversity, countryside hotels
and even its city life.
“The South African winter is a perfect time for tourists to visit,
especially the Kruger National Park, as there are reasonable bus tours
for those who prefer to travel in groups. A plus is definitely that
you do not need any vaccinations for the Cape,” said Munzig.
“If the exchange rate continues to be favourable for foreign tourists,
there is no limit to further increases in visitors,” concluded Munzig.
The Western and Eastern Cape are firm favourites for German visitors.
Minister of Tourism, Tokozile Xasa and South African Tourism (SAT)
CEO, Sisa Ntshona, attended the Internationale Tourismus-Börse (ITB)
Berlin earlier this year.
At the trade show there was a panel discussion on SA’s growth strategy
and SA’s status as trend destination 2017, as well as the role Germany
plays for the South African tourism sector, highlighting the
importance of Germany as a key source market.
“In 2016 we attracted more than ten million tourists, who came to SA
from various parts of the world, which is a 13% surge when compared
with tourist arrivals in 2015 and well above the global average of
3.9%. Of these, 31 000 were Germans, making Germany our second-largest
European source market after the United Kingdom,” added Ntshona.
“The number of German tourists coming to SA grew at an impressive rate
of 21.5% and for this reason we are planning to train even more local
tour guides to add to the 400-plus who already speak German in order
for us to better cater for German tourists.”
Ntshona highlighted that the German tourism industry had rewarded
South African Tourism’s outstanding service to travel agencies with a
silver award at its Globus Travel Awards in January.