Fewer foreign travelers to SA in August

According to Statistics South Africa's Tourism and Migration Report, released on Tuesday, there was a decline of 4.5% for foreign arrivals from 788,117 in August 2007 to 752,942 in August 2008.

The number of tourists arriving in the country had being following a steady growth between 2004 and 2007 but then dropped between 2007 and 2008.

The comparison of figures for August 2007 and August 2008 shows that there was a decrease in the number of travellers arriving from UK (7.9% down from 36,426 to 33,562); USA (10.1% down from 28,760 to 25,845); Germany (15.9% down from 16,071 to 13,510) as well as France (5.8% down from 11,836 to 11,155) among others.

The report, which is based on information provided by the Department of Home Affairs, noted that more than three quarters of the foreigners who arrived in the country in August were from African countries, while less than a quarter, or 22.8% were from overseas countries.

The discrepancy of 0.8% was made up of travellers whose country of residence was not available.

A comparison of the changes between August 2007 and August 2008 indicates that the number of overseas arrivals declined by 8.6% from 188,127 in 2007 to 171,937 in 2008.

A comparison between the movements in July 2008 and August 2008 indicate that there was a decline in all movements.

International tourists generally used airports as their port of entry into the country and the age distribution was widely spread between ages 20 to 64 years.

The report also noted that most tourists to South Africa were from Europe, followed by North America and Asia.

Article published courtesy of BuaNews