CAPE TOWN — Brazil, Russia and China would continue to be a major focus for tourism growth in SA as economic problems in traditional European markets make it difficult to attract new visitors, Tourism Minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk said in Parliament on Friday.
Mr van Schalkwyk said airline capacity and visa problems were a barrier to growing the potential from the Bric (Brazil, Russia, India, China) markets, but these were being attended to.
The tourism sector in SA experienced steady growth this year, amid an increase in visitors from nontraditional markets.
In the first quarter, close to 3 -million tourists visited the country, up 7,5% on the 2558715 visitors recorded over the same period last year.
Mr van Schalkwyk said figures to date showed tourist arrival growth of 20% for China, 33% for India and a decline of 13% for Brazil. "Brazil had growth in 2010 for the 2010 Soccer World Cup, hence the decline in 2011 as compared to the previous year," he said.
To address the airline and visa problems that were hindering the potential from the Bric markets, Mr van Schalkwyk said South African Airways had increased its number of flights to 11 a week on the Brazil route and would be starting a flight to Beijing next month. "The Department of Home Affairs has improved the visa application process in China and India, but the capacity to process groups quickly is still constrained."
Mr van Schalkwyk said South African Tourism had identified Kenya, Nigeria, Angola and Botswana as part of its core market strategy. He said extensive marketing and sales campaigns had resulted in increasing arrivals, especially from Nigeria, where the growth had reached 32% by end-August this year, while arrivals from the Democratic Republic of Congo grew by 16%. In total, Africa had grown by 8,3%, which was 308000 more people than last year over the same period, he said.
Democratic Alliance tourism spokesman Greg Krumbock said while the numbers of tourist arrivals from the rest of Africa were impressive, the effect on the sector was small.
"The problem is that tourists from other African countries, especially our neighbouring countries, come here to shop and the effect on the tourism sector is minimal ." He said the government needed to attract more visitors from all over the world.
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