THIS TOURISM WEEK Number 44 - Monday, 3 July 2006
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And it was interesting to read the figures against media releases on tourism’s role in creating jobs and wealth which I picked up at the Indaba and which were issued by SA Tourism and Minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk’s office.
Unfortunately the Fact Sheet doesn’t say much about its sampling methods, but it does tell us that “in 2005, SA Tourism and the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism introduced a monthly domestic tracking survey to measure, understand and grow domestic tourism. In 2005, 36 million domestic trips were undertaken by over 50% of the South African adult population: this means that a South African took on average 2.5 domestic trips in 2005. Domestic tourism generated about 5 times the number of trips generated by foreign tourism.”
According to the stats, 40% of domestic trips were undertaken to visit friends and relatives (VFR), 12% for holidays and only 3% for business - in other words, of 36.2 million trips undertaken last year, 25 million were VFR’s, 4.5 million were holiday trips and 2.3 million were for business.
Not surprisingly, the domestic market is highly seasonal, with 13.6% of trips happening in December, 11.2% in July, 10% in March, less than 5% February and only 4.5% in November.
The source of domestic trips is unsurprising: “KZN and Gauteng account for both the largest number of trips taken, and the largest number of trips received, across the provinces… however, whereas the majority of travellers from Gauteng visit other provinces, KZN travellers generally remain within their home province… As a result, Gauteng, the North West and the Free State see a net outflow of trips” (briefly: 11.5 million trips came into KwaZulu Natal, while 11.2 million left; and 7.1 million came into Gauteng while 9 million left).
Not surprisingly, 49.7% of adults who did not take a trip in the past year couldn’t do so for economic reasons, and the Fact Sheet says that “a combination of unemployment and affordability stand out as the major barriers to domestic travel” - which “clearly supports the hypothesis that maturation of the domestic market is linked to personal income…
“Annual holiday travel incidence jumps from just 8% in the lowest income category, to 35% and 48% respectively among middle and high income groups; business travel incidence follows the same pattern, while VFR incidence is consistently high at all income levels.”
Now according to the CEO of South African Tourism, Moeketsi Mosola, “it is hugely encouraging that government has identified tourism as one of the sectors of the economy that has the highest potential for growth and has, officially and formally, recognised tourism for the substantial contribution it makes to socio-economic development, to creating jobs and to growing the economy…”
And Minister van Schalkwyk said that “tourism has been tasked with a number of major national responsibilities. The targets for job creation (400,000 new jobs by 2014) and increased contribution to GDP (from just over 8% at present to 12% by 2014) set in terms of our Accelerated And Shared Growth Initiative (ASGISA), have established great expectations” for the tourism industry.
Yes. But.
The question remains: are travel and tourism the same thing?
Is it fair to the tourism industry to define VFR’s as ‘domestic tourists?’ And if, as we have seen, only about 1.6 million of 2005’s 7.3 million foreign arrivals came from long-haul source markets, is it fair to the tourism industry to say that all foreign arrivals are tourists?
Because it’s one thing to boost the economy through travel (and 7.3 million cross-border arrivals is a not inconsiderable boost) - but it’s another thing altogether to fill the beds, the restaurants and the seats that make up the tourism plant…
Ezimvelo KZN Wildlife has a seriously impressive web site. With more than 664 pages (and that’s just the pages listed on the site map), it’s comprehensive and it’s massive - but it’s also easy to use.
What I particularly enjoy are the e-brochures (www.kznwildlife.com/brochures.htm): Like you, I often want to store a site’s essential information for future reference - and that’s where e-brochures come in handy. www.kznwildlife.com has no less than 38 of them - all designed by ChakariNet and each with contact details, on-line reservations enquiries forms and everything you need to know about Ezimvelo’s locations, camp sites and conference facilities.
Every tourism destination should have one: it’s just the thing you need to help you …
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Telephone +27(0)44 384 1810 | Cell +27(0)84 951 0574 | martin@thistourismweek.co.za
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