Air link, bridge to boost KZN
Fall in visitor numbers attributed to relative strength of currency
TOURISM data released by Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) showed a 3.2% year-on-year (y/y) drop in tourist arrivals in January 2019, but Kwazulu-natal (KZN) should have bucked this trend as the new Maputo-katembe bridge makes it easier for Mozambican tourists to visit the province, plus the introduction of a three-times-aweek direct flight between Durban and London by British Airways in October 2018.
King Shaka International Airport and KZN tourism operators are enjoying more international traffic as shown by the y/y acceleration in international arrivals increase to 15.2% in January, according to Airports Company of South Africa (Acsa) data, from 14.6% in December, 13.8% in November and only 4.6% in October.
The Acsa data was confirmed by the Stats SA data, as it showed a 19.4% y/y rise in the number of foreign tourists entering South Africa via KZN’S King Shaka airport. Overall, overseas tourists showed a 4.8% y/y drop in January.
The Stats SA data showed on a y/y comparison that the number of overseas tourists increased for three of the ten leading countries, namely China, the US and Australia, but decreased for Sweden, Brazil, France, Germany, the Netherlands, the UK, and India. China had the largest increase of 22.4%, while Sweden had the largest decrease of 22.4%.
In 2018, numbers of visiting overseas tourists fell 1.5%, even though global tourism grew 6% based on UN tourism data.
Part of the reason for the poor performance of South Africa in the overseas tourism market is that the rand is now more expensive than it was in 2017. By comparison, Turkey is far cheaper due to the drop in the value of the Turkish lira relative to European currencies. This is reflected in the 21.8% surge in tourists to Turkey in 2018 to 39.5 million.
Being part of the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) grouping will allow South Africa to leverage its attractions, but for this to take place, there needs to be increased air lift capacity, as there are currently no direct air links between Durban and any of the other BRICS member countries.
The Maputo-katembe bridge is part of the AU’S aim of making it easier to travel across Africa, so promoting tourism and commerce.
Construction began in 2014 and the bridge opened on November 10 last year. It reduces travel time from Kosi Bay border post in KZN to Maputo to 90 minutes, from 6 hours.
The new KZN Northern Corridor will promote tourism between KZN, eswatini and Mozambique, as it is increased traffic that makes it economically viable to build tourism infrastructure such as lodges, service stations and retail centres.