Overseas arrivals to SA saw an uptick in November with growth of 6% month on month, however year-to-date figures are down 7% compared with the same period in 2014. Total tourists arrivals including neighbouring states were down 6% month on month for November and are down 8% year to date.
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This is according to the latest arrivals stats released by Statistics South Africa.
Of SA’s biggest source markets, the US saw the greatest growth in arrivals during November, with arrivals up 13% to 24 429 compared with 21 622 in November 2014, while Germany was up 3% and the UK dipped 2%.
Lee-Anne Bac, Director of Grant Thornton Johannesburg, points out that up until the end of November, SA had seen the equivalent of 600 000 fewer tourists in 2015 than in the same period in 2014 and that this excluded any growth that SA should have received.
“Given that growth in tourist arrivals was only 7.7% for the period January to November 2014, this means that total tourist arrivals for January to November 2015 are similar to those in 2013 i.e. total tourist arrivals for Jan to Nov 2015 are the same as was received in 2013 and only 3% more than we received in 2012,” said Bac. She described the situation as “depressing”.
“The story is even worse when looking only at overseas arrivals, which only grew by 3.7% in 2014 (Jan to Nov). So the 2015 year to date decline of 6% means that 2015 numbers are only 1.6% higher than we received in 2012,” said Bac, adding that these figures were 2,6% lower than those recorded in 2013.
Bac also pointed out that SA’s key markets had also seen little growth over 2013’s figures. The UK has grown 3.2% compared with 2013, year to date, while the US has grown 0.3% and Germany has grown 3.1%
“All of the industry’s hard work in trying to grow and develop SA over the past two years has produced no growth in overall numbers,” said Bac. “Overall, any gains made during 2014 and some parts of 2013 have been wiped out by a dismal 2015.”
The Chinese market has been showing exceptional growth since September last year, with arrivals up 61%, 96% and 136% year on year for September, October and November respectively. SA saw 12 519 arrivals out of China in November last year. The Indian market turned a corner in November, with arrivals up 22% year on year. China and India are down year to date by 2% and 10% respectively.
Bradley Brouwer, SA Tourism President: Asia Pacific, told Tourism Update that 2015 was a challenging year in the market but that arrivals had been climbing. “We’ve worked hard because we realised the visa issues were posing a challenge,” he said. “We’ve had to push, so we did a deal-driven campaign.” He added that the campaign targeted 1 000 travellers in October and ended up attracting 5 000 travellers.
However, Bac pointed out that both these markets were down when compared with 2013 figures. China is down 23% year to date when compared with 2013 figures and India is down 16%. “In fact the number of Chinese arrivals year to date in 2015 is even 8% lower than 2012 numbers,” she said, adding that the market was up 17% on 2011 figures. “2015 year-to-date Indian arrivals are still 5% lower than the YTD arrivals in 2011.”
