South Africa, with more than 1200 hotels and 8000 restaurants, is the most popular tourist market on the African continent, increasing its market share from 19% in 1994 to 23% in 2003. Between those years, the local industry grew by 78%.

Tourism is the third most important contributor of jobs, growth and foreign exchange, contributing 7.1% of GDP. According to Statistics SA, the average hotel occupancy rate in 2003 was 57.6%, up 1.8% on 2002 with hotel income up 2.4% on 2002.

Arrivals in South Africa increased by 1.2% to 6.5 million in 2003 versus 2002. Non-African arrivals in South Africa increased 4.2% to 1.89 million visitors in 2003 versus 2002. The number of foreign arrivals to South Africa decreased from 657,734 in December 2002 to 641,108 in December 2003, of which 430,734 were from the rest of Africa. European tourist growth was 5.3%. The United Kingdom is South Africa’s main overseas tourist market, with more than 400,000 UK travellers visiting South Africa in 2003. Germany and France, whose tourist numbers increased by about 14% to 127,760 in 2003 over 2002, are next, followed by the Netherlands and Italy. The value of US arrivals in South Africa is estimated to be US$ 535 million per year. 2003 arrivals from China were up 16% and from India 20% over 2002 but off small bases.

South African Tourism’s marketing budget for 2004 is R 400 million.

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