South African tourism is performing impressively well in terms of arrivals and growth spend, Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism, Marthinus van Schalkwyk said, while speaking at a media briefing at the headquarters of South African Tourism in Sandton. Minister van Schalkwyk said that in the context of an extremely challenging global environment South Africa's tourism sector continued to impress, especially in terms of arrivals growth and total foreign direct spend generated. "Estimated 23.5% increase in foreign direct spend for 2008 is especially encouraging," he said.
Minister Van Schalkwyk said he was encouraged by the industry's performance in 2008 and remained optimistic that South Africa would achieve its target of 10m arrivals in 2010. "The South African industry continued to perform well in spite of pressures exerted by the global financial crisis that had seen growth in the global industry shrink to 1.3% last year. South Africa had recorded 5.5% arrivals growth over the period," he said. "I am especially encouraged by the fact that foreign direct spend in 2008 had grown by an estimated 23.5%, bringing the total revenue generated by tourism to more than R356bn since 2003," he said. A total of 9.592m foreigners visited South Africa last year compared with 9.091m in 2007. He said that in terms of the Tourism Growth Strategy (TGS), South African Tourism's mandate was to grow the number of visitors to South Africa; to encourage visitors to stay for longer; to stimulate higher tourist spending; to encourage tourism to the "undervisited" provinces in order to spread revenue more widely; to ease seasonality patterns (that see high arrivals in summer and depressed arrivals in winter); and to transform the industry so that historically marginalised communities might enjoy the lucrative rewards of the industry. Minister Van Schalkwyk said that the industry had done exceptionally well in some Tourism Growth Strategy categories last year.
South Africa is set to host numerous global events including the Indian Premier League, the ICC Champions Trophy, the British Lions Tour, the Confederations Cup and the 2010 FIFA World Cup. "These events will help the industry weather the global economic storm and it gives us an opportunity to prove our global competitiveness. Our successful hosting of these events will also entrench South Africa both as a capable and a desirable leisure destination," he said.