ARRIVALS TO ESWATINI DECLINE BY 5.6% IN MAY 2018

MBABANE – The fifth month of 2018 saw international visitor arrivals to the Kingdom of Eswatini decline by 5.6 per cent when compared to the same month in 2017.

Occasioning this lacklustre performance were weak arrivals figures from all major source regions barring Europe (4.0 per cent).
Arrivals from the African (-5.6 per cent) and Americas (-9.6 per cent) regions contracted by single digits while the situation was slightly more acute for arrivals from the Middle East (-34.2 per cent) and Australasia (-27.3 per cent) wherein the level of decline reached double digits.

The Swaziland Tourism Authority (STA) Research Division reported that arrivals from the region struggled during the month under review as the kingdom’s leading source markets, Mozambique (-5.6 per cent) and South Africa (-4.6 per cent), posted negative returns.
An increase in fuel prices effected at the start of May, occasioned by a soft Rand and rising oils prices meant that South Africans had to pay more for each kilometer travelled.

Such developments adversely impacted the travel propensity for visitors from this market as over 85 per cent of South African visitors to Eswatini come by road, STA observed.

In Mozambique, reported terrorist attacks in the northern parts had the country on high security alert; with road travel discouraged some parts of the country owing to the threat of kidnapping.

Subsequently, Mozambican arrivals to the kingdom suffered amid uncertainty about which areas would target next as the terrorist threat evolved. Other markets in the region that experienced a slowdown in growth included Botswana (-48.9 per cent), Lesotho (-14.5 per cent), Kenya (-25.8 per cent) and Malawi (-10.3 per cent).

STA further stated that arrivals from the region declined by 34.2 per cent primarily due to the weak performance of arrivals from the country’s biggest source market in the region; Israel (-52.2 per cent).

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