South African Tourism: “Confederations Cup, FIFA 2010 will offset depressed arrivals and help maintain industry even keel.”
South Africa recorded a total 9,591,828 visitor arrivals last year. This was 5.5 percent up on 2007’s 9,090,881 total arrivals.
In the context of the current global financial crisis, South African Tourism is encouraged by this growth and remains cautiously optimistic that the destination will achieve its target of 10 million arrivals in 2010.
Strong growth from regional markets over the twelve months (7 percent) and from markets abroad in the first half of the year (8.8 percent) offset declines in foreign visitor growth during the second half of the year.
„This data gives evidence of the value of strong domestic and regional markets,“ says South African Tourism CEO, Moeketsi Mosola. „South Africa, like many of its competitor destinations, relies on neighbouring markets and on domestic tourism during times when conditions restrict long haul visitors.“
Arrivals from the continent grew seven percent last year with Mozambique (13.2 percent), Angola (15.3 percent) and Swaziland (4.7 percent) continuing to show strong growth. However, arrivals were down from many of the overseas markets. German arrivals declined by 6.5 percent; the Netherlands by 0.7 percent; China by 14.9 percent; and the UK by 2.5 percent. However, bucking this trend was encouraging growth in arrivals from France (11.2 percent up); India (0.2 percent up); Italy (1.3 percent up); the USA (3.8 percent up); and Australia (4.8 percent up).
South Africa’s arrivals figures are in line with predictions by the United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) that the global industry would stagnate or even decline in the second half of 2008. This trend will continue, the UNWTO says, until the volatile world economy recovers.
Although Mosola was guarded about the outlook for the rest of this year, he said the big events that South Africa would host in coming months were sure to positively impact visitor growth. „The British Lions tour to South Africa, the Confederations Cup in June and, of course, the 2010 FIFA World Cup will boost arrivals figures and will be a boon to the South African industry during a time when the global industry is sure to feel the pinch of continuing economic turbulence.
„There has been unprecedented and encouraging demand for 2010 FIFA World Cup tickets, giving us every indication that we will see hundreds of thousands of visitors flock to South Africa for the World Cup. We are optimistic that the Confederations Cup will be well attended, too. Moreover, the domestic market is a very lucrative one. South Africans are reconsidering foreign holidays in favour of more affordable holidays in South Africa.“
Many tourism businesses would be forced to reconsider their game plans, to restructure and downsize, Mosola said. However, it would be the businesses that did this intelligently and that planned for the inevitable market recovery, that would bounce back easiest when conditions improved and tourism started growing robustly again.
„We cannot say for sure when that recovery will happen. We believe that nobody can. However, the turnaround will come as quickly as the recession set in. The industry needs to be ready for this and it needs to be prepared to maximise positive conditions as soon as they return,“ he said.
Mosola cautioned the industry to keep a tight reign on pricing policies. South Africa enjoyed an enviable reputation as an exceptionally good value for money foreign holiday destination. „Inflating prices now to compensate for depressed arrivals will erode that reputation in the long term, and make it that much harder for the destination to regain lost ground later.“
South African Tourism would continue investing in global marketing campaigns to maintain the destination’s top of mind awareness. Indaba 2009 was going to be bigger and better than ever and marketing investment in the global television campaigns on CNN, BBC, EuroSport, National Geographic and others would go ahead as planned.
„We cannot afford to relax marketing now,“ Mosola said. „The World Cup is almost upon us. Our competitors are hungry for our consumers. These are tough times. But we are determined to survive and thrive through them.“
