SA city tops Africa destination list
The 2013 MasterCard Top Global Destination Cities Index reveals that Johannesburg has taken the number one spot as Africa’s top destination.
The MasterCard index rank cities by the number of international overnight visitor arrivals and the amount of money these visitors spend.
Joburg is expected to see over 2.5 million (2,544,013) international visitors in 2013, spending US$2.6 billion.
“For the first time in the Index’s brief three year history, Johannesburg occupies the number one rank in terms of expected international visitor arrivals in Africa,” said Philip Panaino, division president, MasterCard, South Africa.
“Home to the continent’s busiest airport and the air transport hub of southern Africa, Johannesburg has grown from strength to strength.”
Johannesburg beat out twelve other African countries to hit the top spot, the report showed – Cape Town, Durban, Cairo, Casablanca, Accra, Nairobi, Beira, Dakar, Kampala, Lagos, Maputo, and Tunis.
According to the report, Johannesburg got the most international visitors from London (299,000 people), with Frankfurt (187,000 people) and Dubai (157,000 people) being the other big contributors.
Cape Town was ranked as the second top destination in South Africa (9th in Africa) and Durban came in third (12th in Africa).
Most visitors to Cape Town and Durban came from Dubia, the report showed.
The top global destintion overall is Bangkok, attracting close to 16 million international overnight visitors; however, the city only ranked fourth in terms of the amount brought in from visitor spending.
Top global destinations
| Rank | City | Overnight visitors |
Spend |
| 1 | Bangkok | 15.98 million | $14.3 billion |
| 2 | London | 15.96 million | $16.3 billion |
| 3 | Paris | 13.92 million | $14.6 billion |
| 4 | Singapore | 11.75 million | $13.5 billion |
| 5 | New York | 11.52 million | $18.6 billion |
| 6 | Istanbul | 10.37 million | $8.6 billion |
| 7 | Dubai | 9.98 million | $10.4 billion |
| 8 | Kuala Lumpur | 9.20 million | $7.8 billion |
| 9 | Hong Kong | 8.72 million | $6.3 billion |
| 10 | Barcelona | 8.41 million | $8.9 billion |
Top African destinations
| Rank | City | Overnight visitors | Overnight spend |
| 1 | Johannesburg | 2.54 million | $2.68 billion |
| 2 | Lagos | 2.16 million | $0.92 billion |
| 3 | Cairo | 2.08 million | $1.70 billion |
| 4 | Tunis | 1.74 million | $1.07 billion |
| 5 | Casablanca | 0.96 million | $0.80 billion |
| 6 | Dakar | 0.60 million | $0.54 billion |
| 7 | Accra | 0.53 million | $0.45 billion |
| 8 | Nairobi | 0.50 million | $0.26 billion |
| 9 | Cape Town | 0.43 million | $0.45 billion |
| 10 | Entebbe | 0.32 million | $0.30 billion |
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