SA needs to promote tourism aggressively

He points out that the country aims to increase the number of foreign tourists visiting this country from seven million in 2009 to at least 15-million by 2020.

Mabuza says achieving this would increase the contribution of tourism from R189-billion in 2009 to R499-billion by 2020 and in the process would create about 225 000 new jobs during that period.

According to Statistics South Africa, between January and April 2011 South Africa attracted 2 750 175 foreign tourists to its shores. This figure was 7,5% higher than the 2 558 715 visitors who came to the country over the same period in 2010 when the country hosted the FIFA World Cup.

Growth in tourist numbers

The statistics show that growth in tourists numbers from Europe was up by 4,5% with 458 470 tourists arriving from that region. The highest number of tourists came from the traditional markets such as Britain with 162 415 tourists arriving in South Africa.

However, the number of visitors from North America increased by 16,8%, while those from Central and South America increased by 24,1%, with Brazil climbing by 38,4%. From the eastern parts of the world, the number of tourists from Asia increased by 29,3% while those venturing to South Africa from India increased by an impressive 51%.

Africa's contribution to South Africa's increasing number of tourists was disappointingly low at just 7,3%, although the number of visitors from Nigeria grew by 27,6% and the Democratic Republic of Congo was 21,2% higher.

Mabuza says that South African Tourism is investing more than R60-million on marketing efforts to the African continent to boost the number of visitors and has identified countries such as Nigeria, Angola, Kenya and the DRC as the main targets for its marketing drive.

The organisation's global marketing campaign, dubbed 20 Experiences in 10 Days is set to reach over a billion consumers with the unscripted, authentic travel experiences of couples from Britain, America, Nigeria and India in the first phase and with couples from China, Germany, Brazil and Angola in the second one.

Showcasing the country

According to Mabuza, the goal for South African Tourism is to showcase the country's lifestyle, design, fashion and music along with profiling of the urbanisation of its cities.

It has partnered with events such as South African Fashion International for the Joburg, Cape Town and Africa Fashion Weeks, as well as the Cape Town International Jazz Festival, the Macufe Festival and the Grahamstown National Arts Festival.

It ialso has a long-term arrangement with the Design Indaba, Designing South Africa and is supporting Cape Town's 2014 World Design Capital bid.

Mabuza says that research indicates that word-of-mouth and the first-hand impressions of visitors to South Africa are the most valuable marketing tools for the country.

He says that when these factors are combined with the tendency among tourists to seek more affordable travel destinations, South Africa is ideally placed to take advantage of changing international tourism trends.