JOZI has emerged as the most popular city in Africa for the fifth successive year.
According to the annual Mastercard Global Destination Cities Index the City of Gold attracted 4.05 million international overnight visitors in 2017.
This followed by Marrakech in Morocco which is the second most popular African destination city, welcoming 3.93 million international overnight visitors last year.
On the third place is Polokwane with 1.88 million visitors and Cape Town with 1.73 million.
Johannesburg also recorded the highest international overnight visitor expenditure among African cities with travellers spending 2.14 billion US Dollars in 2017
On average, international visitors stayed 10.9 nights and spent US$48 per day in Johannesburg, with shopping accounting for more than 50 percent of their total spend. “The City of Gold has once again topped the ranks of this year’s African index, with its mix of shopping and tourism offerings still hitting the mark with international travellers,” Division President of Mastercard Southern Africa Mark Elliott said.
“The ranking is significant for Joburg’s economic prospects as visitor expenditure contributes an important source of revenue to the retail, hospitality, restaurant and cultural sectors,” Elliott added. The Mastercard Global Destination Cities Index ranks the world’s top 162 destination cities in terms of visitor volume and spend for the 2017 calendar year. It also provides insight on the fastest growing destination cities, and a deeper understanding of why people travel and how they spend around the world. This year’s Index ranks 23 major African cities including Cairo, Nairobi, Lagos, Casablanca, Durban, Tunis, Dar es Salaam, Accra, Kampala, Maputo and Dakar among others.“As the strong numbers of visitors from our neighbouring countries show, Johannesburg is one of the continent’s most significant metropolises for business, trade, investment and leisure,” City of Johannesburg Executive Mayor Herman Mashaba said. Cape Town and Polokwane ranked third and sixth in terms of the African cities with the highest international overnight visitor expenditure in 2017, with visitors spending 1.62 billion US Dollars and 760 million US Dollars. While visitors to Cape Town stayed 12.5 nights and spent 75 US Dollars per day on average, travellers to Polokwane stayed for a shorter period (4.3 nights), but spent more per day 95 US Dollars.
