SA more popular than Oz, says SA Tourism coo

SOUTH AFRICA has for the past two years been more popular than its main international rival, Australia. This according to a report in the 'Eastern Cape Daily Dispatch', which quotes South African Tourism coo, Moeketsi Mosola, as having said that South Africa had received 6,42 million tourists in 2002 and 6,5 million last year compared with Australia which received 4,8 million and 4,7 million respectively. The travel spend, says the report, was however significantly different as South Africa only saw R54bn, while Australia received almost R200bn from its tourists. Mosola was speaking at a tourism business road show, aimed at sharing information with all tourism industry players and organised by the Tourism Business Council of South Africa (TBCSA) with presentations from SA Tourism, the Tourism Grading Council of South Africa (TGCSA), Tourism Marketing South Africa (Tomsa) and the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism. Mosola is said to have confirmed SA Tourism’s focus on a few key markets, including India, China, Russia, the United Kingdom, Germany, The Netherlands, the United States and Japan. He added that results have already been seen with this approach and that SA Tourism had embarked on a campaign to establish South Africa as a must-visit destination. (Natalia Thompson)