As a result of continued positive growth in inbound visitor numbers from India and China, South African Tourism is all set to recognise the two countries as established tourism markets. This was revealed by Thulani Nzima, CEO, South African Tourism at INDABA 2012, Africa’s biggest travel trade fair. INDABA 2012 concluded last month in Durban.
“We witnessed strong growth from India last year and registered a 26.2 per cent increase in visitor arrivals compared to 2010. Last year, we recorded 90,367 Indian visitor arrivals, while in 2010, the figure was 71,587. South Africa has enjoyed double digit growth from the Indian market for the last five years with the numbers increasing substantially each year. We hope to cross the 100,000 mark for arrivals from India this year. The growing number of Indian tourists is enough reason to stop using the ‘Emerging Market’ tag for the country and we are likely to upgrade India to our list of established markets by the year’s end or by early 2013,” stated Nzima. With regards to China, Nzima informed that South Africa recorded 84,883 visitor arrivals from China last year, a growth of 24.3 per cent over 2010. |