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Furnishings & DecorSouth Africa’s rugged, diverse and breathtaking vistas including its colourful culture and world class conference venues, hotels, restaurants and exhilarating adventure captivates the attention of its visitors. The hospitality and tourism sector can proudly boast of the natural setting that inhabits the fauna and flora that forms the backdrop for its many operations and services that are offered to its travellers.
Our landscape is composed of wide open spaces, blue mountains and exquisite sunsets. These scenes abound and the exuberant and contrasting culture is what our visitors should really experience. Many believe the simple reason that so many visitors from all over the world return again and again to South Africa is because of their experience of our culture and the friendship of its people.
South Africa’s tourism tends to focus on three main platforms for attracting foreigners: leisure, business and event tourism. In the quarter ending September 2009, there were almost 2,6 million foreign arrivals, which is the highest number of arrivals ever recorded for the third quarter. According to research, hospitality and friendly people (32.7%) and good service (29.9%) were the best experience of foreign visitors to South Africa in this quarter. Another interesting statistic is that over 63% of tourists who visited South Africa in this quarter were between the ages of 25 – 44 years.
Our wealth of world class conference facilities mostly found in SA’s top hotels are of a high standard with many international conferences regularly being hosted here. If you drive along one of South Africa’s scenic strips, a landscape composed of wide open spaces, blue mountains and blood-red sunsets, it’s not difficult to understand why many foreigners are intrigued by our unique location.
Our track record of successful sportsmanship has also raised international awareness and roused curiosity about our country from many visitors. International matches being hosted locally for soccer, rugby and cricket create an electrifying vibe and absolute dedication from fans. Sport is big news in South Africa. At this stage, with the particular focus being on football, this sport reflects the country’s significant history and the struggle for democracy.
Rugby is another competitive sport in South Africa with many passionate supporters from all over the world and the national squad called the Springboks. The inter-regional and international games are of very high standard and hold the attention of many sports fans locally and globally. Cricket on the other hand has proved to be a very popular sport with international tests and one day series that take place in the summer season between November and March 2010. Some of our country's stadiums also rate among the best in the world. The Wanderers Cricket Stadium, for instance, seats just 28 000, but is known as the Bull Ring because of its electrifying atmosphere.
Then there's Newlands, regarded by many as the most picturesque test cricket venue in the world. Cape Town's famous Table Mountain stares down on the ground with clouds rolling over the top of the mountain make for a stunning backdrop. Johannesburg's Ellis Park is a rugby cauldron. Playing at altitude against the Springboks is surely one of the tougher challenges in world rugby. It makes for a marvellous picture when filled to capacity.
Furthermore, South Africa also has a variety of extreme sports and adventures. Cape Town offers some of the best climbing in the world with hundreds of natural routes, superb quality Cape granite and Table Mountain sandstone within the city limits. With numerous mountain schools and mountain guides, there is no excuse to not experience such an adventure and even beginners can have a wonderful time learning. Adventure activities also include river trips, paragliding, hang gliding launch sites, helicopter rides, balloon flights, aerobatics, skydiving, horse riding, bungee jumping and pretty much any other adrenalin activity you can think of.
Many of our visitors are looking for a unique African adventure and will find activities such as mountain biking, fly-fishing, hiking, bird watching, game viewing, micro light flying, river rafting and canoeing as something that is more closely linked to Africa and the exhilarating experience it can offer. For the golf enthusiast, South Africa is a wonderful destination. Not only is our climate ideal for spending time out on the fairways under the bright African sun, golfers are really blessed for choice. There are courses along the coast with a wonderful selection and probably the most famous golf course in South Africa is the Gary Player Country Club at Sun City.
South Africa can also boast of their ex president, Nelson Mandela who’s legacy reminds leaders to lead by the will of the people, defend democracy and never discriminate. To many this man is an icon that represents a father, grandfather, comrade, warrior, soldier, national builder and statesman. Nelson Mandela is widely celebrated worldwide as the man who became a symbol and embodiment of hope for African people in particular. The globe poured in for one of the world’s most loved politician for his 90th birthday putting South Africa on the world map as a country filled with hope and possibility.
In addition, South Africa offers a fine selection of wines to its visitors. The Cape Mediterranean climate and mountainous terrain provide excellent grape growing conditions. Rain falls mostly in winter, and dry summers allow grapes to mature evenly, developing a full, ripe flavour. With vineyards that spread throughout the country, South Africa has been producing high quality wines since the 17th century.
Lastly, it seems that leisure remains the primary purpose for tourists visiting South Africa and has increased by 1.1% compared to the previous year. It seems that other than shopping, nightlife and socialising, visiting natural attractions, cultural, historical and heritage sites were popular activities undertaken by tourists in 2009. It is also interesting to note that of the estimated R19,1 billion that foreign tourists spent in South Africa in this quarter, a large proportion of this spend was attributed to personal shopping (R5,6 billion) and buying goods for re-sale (R4,6 million). The third highest spend category was accommodation with an estimated R2,2 billion.
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