South Africa: tourist arrival growth in January 2011

Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) has released the arrival statistics for January 2011 and, despite all rumours, the statistics are showing a growth in tourist arrivals in South Africa.
Total arrivals for the period grew by 9,3% from 729056 to 796526, with overseas arrivals accounting for 179493 of the total, a 7% increase from the January 2010 total of 167706.

The top 10 overseas source markets for January 2011:

1. UK - 7,6% from 42246 to 39041
2. Germany + 12,3% from 18987 to 21313
3. US + 10,8% from 15963 to 17685
4. The Netherlands - 4,4% from 10882 to 10400
5. France + 6,2% from 8506 to 9036
6. Australia + 32,1% from 6469 to 8544
7. India + 62% from 3961 to 6415
8. Sweden + 5,9% from 4997 to 5292
9. China + 33,1% from 3733 to 4968
10. Canada + 9,9% from 4103 to 4508

15.1% more arrivals in South Africa in 2010 compared to 2009

South Africa's Tourism Minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk announced some more tourism stats for 2010 in a media briefing at Parliament on 01 March 2011.

• South Africa saw a total of 8 073 552 arrivals in 2010
• it was only 7.3 Mio between Jan and Nov 2010, so South Africa welcomed another 700 000 visitors in Dec 2010. Not bad!
• that is an increase by 15.1% compared to 2009 (7 011 865 arrivals)
• UNWTO estimates global tourism arrivals to have grown by 6.7% in 2010

The Top 10 overseas markets for 2010:

1. UK + 1,5% -  from 446 369 to 453 030
2. USA + 22,6% -  from 230 324 to 282 377
3. Germany + 24,7% - from 194 034 to 242 028
4. The Netherlands + 8,4% - from 114 431 to 124 088
5. France + 14,4% - from 100 890 to 115 401
6. Australia + 30,4% - from 82 753 to 107 905
7. India + 29,7% - from 55 203 to 71 587
8. China + 90,7% - from 34 561 to 65 920
9. Canada + 21,9% - from 45 330 to 55 263
10. Italy + 8,6% - from 50 303 to 54 641

The Top 5 arrivals from African markets:

1. Zimbabwe + 137,3% - from 1 227 631 to 2912 957
2. Lesotho +  21,7% - from 1 048 550 to 1 275 838
3. Mozambique +  6,9% - from 983 739 to 1 051 502
4. Swaziland - 0,6% - from 636 593 to 632 490
5. Botswana + 4,7% - from 484 258 to 507 042

More than 700 000 tourists visited South Africa in October 2010

Statistics South Africa (StatsSA) has published the October 2010 Tourism and Migration statistics. In October 2010 South Africa had 1 003 661 foreign arrivals. The arrivals were made up of 14 757 non-visitors and 988 904 visitors. The visitors consist of 282 065 same-day visitors and 706 839 overnight visitors (tourists).
The breakdown of the tourists by region is as follows: 208 276 from overseas; 480 766 from SADC countries; 15 305 from "other" African countries and 2 492 unspecified.
The total overseas arrivals grew by 9,7% from 189 932 to 208 276 while African arrivals grew by 13% from 438 756 to 496 071. [src.]

The top overseas markets for October 2010 were:

• UK, down 2,9% from 40 829 to 39 642
• Germany, up 6,8% from 23 300 to 24 895
• USA, up 22,9% from 19 536 to 24 002
• The Netherlands, down 5,2% from 15 612 to 14 796
• France, up 9,8% from 11 834 to 12 995
• Australia, up 32,9% from 7 029 to 9 339
• India, up 24,6% from 5 047 to 6 291
• China, up 73,7% from 3 280 to 5 697
• Canada, up 25% from 4 536 to 5 668
• Switzerland, up 28% from 3 983 to 5 097

The top African markets for October 2010 were:

• Zimbabwe, up 12,7% from 117 669 to 132 571
• Lesotho, up 39,1% from 87 286 to 121 042
• Mozambique, up 9,6% from 79 039 to 86 905
• Swaziland, down 5,3% from 52 320 to 49 599
• Botswana, down 0,9% from 38 841 to 38 506