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VISITOR ARRIVALS UP 4.5%

07/02/2018 00:38:00 BY KWANELE DHLADHLA

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MBABANE – International visitor arrivals to the kingdom between October and December increased by 4.5 per cent when compared to a similar period in 2016.

This strong performance in growth can be attributed to robust arrivals figures from the country’s main source markets across most major regions as African (4.5 per cent), Americas (3.8 per cent) and European (9.4 per cent) arrivals all posted positive rates of growth.
Regions that struggled for growth included the Middle East (-21.7 per cent) and Australasia (-13.5 per cent).

In Africa, the Swaziland Tourism Authority (STA) reported that arrivals from the region accelerated to post an exceptional rate of growth owing to robust arrival figures from South Africa (1.3 per cent) and Mozambique (22.8 per cent) during the quarter.

STA said while the overall picture for the region was a positive one, most key source markets in the region struggled for growth. These included Botswana (-3.7 per cent), Lesotho (-3.9 per cent), Kenya (-7.7 per cent), Zambia (-11.6 per cent) and Malawi (-21.1 per cent).

“The positive aggregate performance of arrivals from the region notwithstanding the poor performances of most key source markets reinforces the position of South Africa and Mozambique as the anchormarkets for Swazi tourism within the region,” STA noted.

The performance of arrivals from the Middle East region (-21.7 per cent) during the fourth quarter was lacklustre owing to weak arrival figures from the country’s biggest source market in the region, Israel (-38.7 per cent). Other markets (86.2 per cent) in the region rallied to post strong growth notwithstanding unabating spate of wars and political instability in some countries in the region.

During the months reviewed, arrivals from the Americas posted resilient growth as the American economy continued its strong growth path. Arrivals from the USA (4.2 per cent) and Canada (9.3 per cent) posted robust growth while Brazilian (-15.3 per cent) arrivals struggled.