TOURIST ARRIVALS TO ESWATINI DECLINE BY 3.9% IN AUGUST

MBABANE – As the tourism industry eagerly awaits the relaxation of Visa travel requirements and the abolition of affidavits for tourists travelling with children into South Africa tourists coming into the kingdom continue to dip.

During the eighth month of 2018, international visitor arrivals to the Kingdom of Eswatini declined by 3.9 per cent when compared to the same month in 2017.
Occasioning this lacklustre performance were weak arrivals figures from all major source regions barring the Americas (4.4 per cent). Arrivals from Africa (-4.1 per cent), Australasia (-0.8 per cent) and Europe (-3.3 per cent) contracted by single digits, while the situation was more acute for arrivals from the Middle East (-33.6 per cent) where the level of decline reached double digits.

The Swaziland Tourism Authority (STA) reported that arrivals from the African region struggled during the month under review as the kingdom’s leading source markets, Mozambique (-10.9 per cent) and South Africa (-4.6 per cent), posted negative returns.

High

“Fuel prices remained relatively high during month, which meant that South Africans still had to pay more for each kilometre travelled,” said STA Research Department’s Bongani Hlophe.

It was pointed out that news of the South African economy slipping into a technical recession further worsened the existing pressures on the propensity to engage in luxury expenditures like holidays.

Elsewhere in the region, the completion of the Kosi Bay-Maputo road significantly cut the travel time between Maputo and the KwaZulu Natal (KZN) province.
“The probable implication of the foregoing development being a potential loss of both the overnight and transit visitors currently travelling through Eswatini for business and leisure purposes en-route to Maputo or KZN,” Hlophe explained.
Other markets in the region that experienced a slowdown in growth included Botswana (-20.1 per cent), Lesotho (-41.3 per cent), Kenya (-0.1 per cent) and Malawi (-10.3 per cent).

Depressed

Arrivals from the Middle East region declined by 33.6 per cent mainly due to the depressed performance of arrivals from the country’s largest visitor generating market in the region; Israel (-34.8 per cent).
Other markets in this region also failed to post positive gains, notwithstanding the oil market driven recovery of the economy of the region and abating geopolitical risks. 

During the month of August, the aggregate performance of the Americas was robust, as arrival figures from the region increased by 4.4 per cent with resilient American arrivals (2.7 per cent) the principal cause for positive aggregate outturn.
Average airline fares declined during the month reviewed, which eased the costs of holiday travel within and without the borders of the country for most Americans.

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