Almost 10 000 tourists on Umhlanga weekend
MBABANE – The Reed Dance once again proved to be a positive catalyst in the tourism industry as close to 10 000 people visited the country over the event’s four days period.
With the revival of global tourism, encouraged by the cautious easing of travel restrictions the world over, the country welcomed over 9 457 international visitors from across the globe during the Reed Dance weekend.
Each year, the world descends eagerly to the Kingdom of Eswatini to immerse itself in the untainted, timeless culture of emaSwati at the Umhlanga Ceremony and this year was no different.
The pulsating Umhlanga festivities were held on the weekend of September 2 – 5, 2022.
Eswatini Tourism Authority (ETA) Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Linda Nxumalo confirmed that the numbers and said visitors from Europe doubled up this year as compared to the last event.
She further attributed the high numbers to other events that were happening over the same weekend and said they all complemented each other and contributed to high volume of international visitors to the country.
INBOUND
“A total of 9 457 international visitors were recorded into Eswatini during the Umhlanga weekend between September 2 to 5, 2022.Arrivals to the region constituted a larger proportion of regional inbound arrivals with South Africa and Mozambique accounting for over 66.8 per cent and 8.8 per cent respectively. Eswatini attracted within four days 45 per cent of the total arrivals achieved in 30 days in September 2021. Visitors could not have chosen a more appropriate time to experience the country as this was the busiest weekend in the year outside of the MTN Bushfire festival,” Nxumalo said.
The weekend offered a wholesome blend of experiential events such as the Swazi Rally at Rider’s Ranch in Sidvokodvo, Africa Tourism Board’s African Legends Soccer Tournament and African Carnival at the Mavuso Sports Ground and the Imvelo MTB Classic at Mlilwane Wildlife Sanctuary, among many others.
Nxumalo said these events were known and loved by people from different parts of the world, hence their ability to stimulate tourism in the country.
“Due to the various activities that took place in the country and the keen interest in attending the Umhlanga Ceremony demonstrated by the thousands of tourists who came into the country over the fourday period, accommodation establishments recording impressive bookings,” she added.
Nxumalo also revealed that the occupancy rate was the highest for game and nature reserves, accounting for 70.2 per cent, followed by guest houses at 63.6 per cent and hotels at 59.7 per cent. The average occupancy rate per day over the four-day Umhlanga weekend was 65.8 per cent.
She said this figures were higher than the average occupancy rate recorded for the entire month of September last year which was 32.6 per cent.
ENCOURAGING
Commenting further on the arrivals and tourism activity within the country over the course of this year’s Umhlanga weekend, Nxumalo affirmed that these figures indicated encouraging developments in the country’s tourism recovery strategy.
“We are pleased to see South Africa and Mozambique maintaining their position as Eswatini’s highest source markets. We attribute this to the recent familiarisation tour under the Triland Agreement between the Eswatini Tourism Authority, Mpumalanga Tourism and Parks Agency and Mozambique Tourism Board (INATUR). This is an initiative that seeks to promote the region as a tourist, trade and investment destination. We commend the tireless efforts made by tour operators, who took part in the Triland creating and selling packages to Eswatini to regional and international tourists,” Nxumalo said.
She further attributed the arrival of tourists from emerging African markets such as Nigeria and Malawi to Africa Tourism Board’s Africa Soccer Legends Tournament, which pulled attendees from different corners of the continent.
“We anticipate an increase in tourists from Zimbabwe following the securing of the country as one of the primary routes for the country’s emerging airline, Eswatini Air. We also note that the arrivals from Europe were higher over the four-day period at 1 251 compared to the whole month of September last year where the country received 521 tourists from the continent,” she said.
Nxumalo went on to forecast an increase in arrivals from emerging markets, citing the figures recorded over the Umhlanga weekend.
PARTNERED
She further thanked all private companies that partnered with them in accommodating some of their special guests. She said they hosted Ligwalagwala FM and South African Broadcast Corporation (SABC) to do a live broadcast of the event in the South African market. A study by Haroon Rasool, Shafat Maqbool and Md. Tarique on the relationship between tourism and economic growth showed that tourism has become the world’s third-largest export industry after fuels and chemicals, and ahead of food and automotive products.
“From the last few years, there has been a great surge in international tourism, which culminates to seven per cent share of the world’s total exports in 2016,” reads an abstract from the study.
The study further suggests that countries should promote favourable tourism policies to push up the economic growth and in turn economic growth will positively contribute to international tourism.