JULY INTERNATIONAL VISITOR ARRIVALS DOWN 6.9 PER CENT

MBABANE – July saw international visitor arrivals to the Kingdom of Eswatini decline by 9.6 per cent when compared to July 2017.

The Eswatini Tourism Authority has reported that occasioning this weak performance were lacklustre arrivals figures from all major source regions baring the Middle East.

Arrivals from the African (-6.1 per cent) region experienced a single digit decline while the level of decline was slightly more acute for arrivals from Europe (-10.8 per cent), the Americas (-17.1 per cent) and Australasia (-15.0 per cent), as it reached double digits.

It was explained that the slowdown in overseas arrivals in particular, demonstrated a degree of sensitivity inbound tourism to Eswatini has to major events happening elsewhere around the world.  “The FIFA World Cup, concluded mid-July in Russia, attracted a lot of visitors from within and without the borders of Europe. Consequently, small long-haul destinations like Eswatini struggled to attract substantial numbers of overseas visitors,” said ETA.

Africa

The aggregate performance of arrivals from the African region for the month was negative owing to weak arrival figures from the kingdom’s leading source markets, Mozambique (-17.3 per cent) and South Africa (-4.1 per cent).
A weak rand contributed to fuel prices in South Africa rising for the fifth straight month to reach E16.02 per litre.

“This development worsened the already high cost of each kilometer travelled and adversely impacted the travel propensity for visitors from this market as most South African visitors to Eswatini come by road. Similarly, arrivals from Mozambique struggled amid rising relative prices during the month reviewed (Instituto Nacional de Estatistica).Rising relative prices in an economy tend to adversely impact the opportunity cost of leisure expenditures such as holidays,” ETA disclosed.

 Other markets in the region that struggled included Botswana (-25.7 per cent), Lesotho (-17.8 per cent) and Tanzania (-11.2 per cent).
The Middle East
Arrivals from the Middle East region recovered from the slump of the previous month to post strong growth (8.5 per cent) notwithstanding the poor performance of the country’s primary visitor generating market in the region; Israel (-4.6 per cent). Arrivals from Kuwait and Iran provided the impetus for growth.

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