Statistics SA has released its report on tourist arrivals for the month of July. Yesterday, Tourism Update published an analysis of the data recorded in the year to date (January to July).
Drilling down into numbers for the month of July, arrivals remain unchanged compared with the same month last year. Overall, overseas visitors numbered 206 076 in July 2018.
Key source markets for July 2018 and their percentage change from July 2017 are as follows:
- USA (37 560), up 2%
- UK (27 553), down 8%
- The Netherlands (17 624), up 3%
- Germany (15 069), up 5%
- France (12 970), down 5%
- Australia (9 921), up 3%
- China (9 697), up 36%
- India (7 204), down 2%
- Brazil (6 880), up 13%
- Belgium (6 744), up 7%
On July 27-29, South Africa hosted the 10th annual BRICS Summit, which brought arrivals from key developing countries including large delegations from Brazil, Russia (which saw a 135% increase that month), India and China.
In line with year-to-date numbers, Argentina continued its growth into July, up 12% from July last year. This, along with numbers from Brazil, indicates consistent growth out of South America. While Argentina is currently in the lower half of overall arrival numbers, steady growth indicates this is an emerging market for South Africa’s tourism industry.
