Foreigners are flocking to Johannesburg to shop
Johannesburg has been named as the most popular destination city in Africa in 2016, followed by Cape Town, according to the annual Mastercard Global Destination Cities Index.
Johannesburg welcomed 4.57 million international overnight visitors in 2016 – a 24% increase on the previous year’s 3.69 million visitors.
Cape Town rose from third place in 2015 to become the second most popular African destination city in 2016 with 1.52 million visitors.
Lagos (1.04 million), Casablanca (961,694), and Cairo (820,959) rounded out the top five African cities, while Durban remained in sixth place, attracting 758,057 international overnight visitors.
Johannesburg also topped the rankings in Africa in terms of international visitor expenditure, with travellers spending US$2.56 billion in 2016.
Shopping accounted for the largest percentage of visitor spend, followed by accommodation and dining out.
“The City of Gold has shown the highest year-on-year growth in visitor numbers of all the African cities ranked in the 2016 index, illustrating that its mix of shopping, iconic attractions and tourism offerings is clearly hitting the mark with international travellers,” said Anton van der Merwe, head of market development at Mastercard, South Africa.
“Significantly, Joburg also reported a four percent increase in international expenditure from 2015 – much greater than South Africa’s GDP growth of 0.3 percent in 2016. This indicates that Johannesburg is well positioned to be an engine of broad economic growth for the country.”
78% of Johannesburg’s international overnight visitors in 2016 travelled from the Middle East Africa region.
Mozambique was the number one country that sends visitors to Johannesburg, accounting for 1.02 million visitors or 22% of the total. The remaining top five origin countries were Zimbabwe (841 000), Lesotho (493 000), Botswana (315 000) and Swaziland (215 000).
Cape Town and Durban are ranked number two and eighth in terms of expenditure in Africa, with international visitors spending $1.2 billion (R16.49 billion) and $314 million (R4.31 billion) respectively.
The Mother City attracted a larger proportion of long-haul visitors than Johannesburg, with travellers coming from the United Kingdom (335,000), United States (218,000), Germany (217,000) and the Netherlands (96,000).
Cape Town’s highest number of African visitors came from Namibia (144,000). Durban’s top three countries of origin were Swaziland (295,000), Lesotho (52,000) and Zimbabwe (49,000).
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