Jozi - where the foreigners flock

07 November 2014 - 11:56 By PENWELL DLAMINI
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The Johannesburg skyline. File photo
The Johannesburg skyline. File photo
Image: Daniel Born

Money talks, and the most popular destination on the continent is not Cape Town, not Cairo, not Lagos. It is the City of Gold.

Johannesburg is set to attract the most visitors among African metros this year, the MasterCard Global Destination Cities index showed yesterday.

It is expected to get 4.3million international overnight visitors this year, many of them business travellers, a 4.9% increase on last year's arrivals.

The visitors will spend more in Johannesburg than anywhere else on the continent, splashing out $3.2-billion this year, compared to $3.06-billion last year.

Cape Town is the second-most popular, followed by Cairo, Lagos, Casablanca and Durban. The index ranks 132 cities and Johannesburg is number 28 on this list, with Cape Town a long way off at 68.

Most visitors to Johannesburg will again travel from London. This year, visitors from London are expected to increase by 3%, from 444000 last year to 458000 this year.

Mark Elliott, SA MasterCard president, said: "Visitor spend is an increasingly important source of revenue for the city's hospitality, retail, transport, sports and cultural sectors."

But Londoners are expected to spend $20-million less than they did last year, forking out about $462-million during their stays in Johannesburg this year.

Johannesburg Mayor Parks Tau said the city had positioned itself to be more attractive .

"Johannesburg has generated a lot of interest among people, both for business and leisure. These are people who want to know more about South Africa but, most importantly, we are seeing an increase in numbers of business tourists coming to Johannesburg," he said.

Tau conceded that the city had experienced problems with water and electricity supply but, "like many cities in the world, we experience what you are talking about. The trick in these is facilitating co-operation in all the agencies involved in the supply of water and electricity and we are able to respond timeously."

Johannesburg also attracted visitors from Frankfurt (305,000 ), Harare (269,000 ), Maputo (204,000 ) and Paris (198,000).

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