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

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