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ARRIVALS TO ESWATINI UP BY 2.2% IN SEPT

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MBABANE – Tourism which has a ripple effect on all sectors of the economy continues to show an upward trend.


This could well be substantiated by the fact that Eswatini welcomed 117 476 international visitors in September 2019 reflecting an increase of 2.2 per cent when compared to September 2018.


The Eswatini Tourism Authority (ETA) Research Department’s Bongani Hlophe reported that the South African market demonstrated a robust rate growth expanding by nine per cent.


It was explained that demand from other key source markets around the world remained weak with the situation more acute in overseas markets.
The arrivals from Australasia (- 0.9 per cent), the Americas (-12.1 per cent), Europe (-9.8 per cent) and the Middle East (-49.0 per cent), all decelerated during the month.


“Analysis of the figures reveals that the boosted performance of arrivals can be attributed to SADC arrivals,” said Hlophe. 
The researcher said arrivals from the Africa region reached 105 046 in September 2019, with a notable increase of 3.7 per cent in comparison to the same month in 2018.


It was stated that key performing markets during the period also included Kenya (12.3 per cent) and Tanzania (10.3 per cent).
Hlophe mentioned that the recovery of the South African economy in the second quarter with Gross Domestic Product (GDP) expanding by 3.1 per cent, helped to avoid a technical recession following the slump of the first quarter.


“This was an important development as the state of the economy impacts directly on the population’s capacity to engage in spending on non-basic need items like holidays.

The hosting of the Umhlanga Ceremony during the first week of the month also drew a lot of visitors resident in the region,” Hlophe explained.
However, Hlophe pointed out that markets which struggled included Mozambique (-16.2 per cent), Lesotho (-43.7 per cent) and Botswana (-40.8 per cent).
ETA said visitations from the Middle East struggled during the month under review declining by 16.2 per cent owing to a significant decline in the performance of arrivals Israel (-53.2 per cent), which was the country’s largest visitor generating market in the Middle East.


It was disclosed that arrivals from the Americas declined by 26.9 per cent mainly due to weak American and Brazilian visitations.
“This was despite positive growth in both employment and wages figures in the both the USA during the month. A factor contributing to the weak demand from this region was the increase in airfares for both domestic and international flights in the USA. The rising airfares tended to depress the propensity for long haul leisure travel,” said Hlophe.


Visitations


ETA further said visitations from Australasia declined marginally (-0.9 per cent).
“The main factor was a deceleration in arrivals from Australia (17.8 per cent) and South Korea (-0.8 per cent). The IRB Ruby World Cup   is expected to draw large numbers of visitors especially from within this region which has the implication of reduced visitor number to the Southern African region.On a positive note, Taiwanese (84.5), Indian (13.6 per cent) and Filipino arrivals posted robust rates of growth during this period. The world cup came to a close in November.


It was noted that arrivals from European markets were (-9.8 per cent) to the kingdom and declined for the ninth consecutive month. ETA said the demand for long-haul travel remained weak with arrivals from key markets in France (-6.1 per cent), Germany (-27.4 per cent) and the Netherlands (-15.2 per cent) all posting negative returns.


“Key developments within the region that contributed to the poor aggregate out-turn included the upward adjustment of consumer prices in the Netherlands while Germany saw significant price increases in the maintenance and repair of vehicles (five per cent) and air tickets (4.3 per cent).
On a positive note, British (1.0 per cent) and Swedish (84.8 per cent) arrivals posted robust growth,” added Hlophe.

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