The African continent appears to have shrugged off the disastrous impact of Ebola and South Africa its tough visa laws with international arrivals to Africa sharply up in 2016, with Namibia, Kenya and South Africa leading the growth.
International flight bookings to Africa for the European summer season are currently almost 6 percent ahead of where they were at this time last year, according to the latest data from ForwardKeys, which analyses reservation transactions daily.
The figures show a 5.9 percent increase in forward bookings from May to October compared with 2015, with robust growth in arrivals from across the globe as well as from within the continent.
The data shows forward bookings from Europe – which at 57 percent has the biggest market share – are up 6.0 percent. Travel within Africa is also increasing and at a faster rate, up 6.2 percent. The Americas, with a market share of 15 percent, are up 12.3 percent.
Bookings made for the beginning of May onwards show that nearly all the top African destinations are seeing an increase in international arrivals. Namibia tops the list, up 31.2 percent on the previous year, with Kenya in second place, up 27.7 percent, followed by South Africa, up 21.6 percent.
Overall, visitor numbers in South Africa declined 6.8 percent in 2015 the Minister for Tourism Derek Hanekom revealed in his budget speech earlier this month. The Minister said however that tourism is recovering rapidly from last year’s decline.
The World Travel and Tourism Council estimates Tourism will earn R120 ($AUD 10.1) billion in export earnings, and contribute more than R380 ($AUD 35) billion to the economy this year.
In January, over 1 million tourists arrived in South Africa, 15% more than in January last year. February brought an incredible 18% increase. However, good as these numbers are, they still fall short of global growth expectations (4 percent) when averaged out over two years.
