Tourists spent about R4 billion in South Africa during last year's soccer World Cup, according to estimates tabled by Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan.
A total of 309,544 tourists visited the country for the event, of whom 38 percent were from Africa, the document said.
“Tourist expenditure during the 2010 Fifa World Cup amounted to approximately R4 billion, at an average of R12,000 over a stay of 10 nights.”
The document said tourism's “total direct and indirect contribution” to the economy was R189 billion in the 2009/10 financial year, which did not include the tournament.
“The department aims to increase tourism's total direct and indirect contribution to R318 billion by 2015.”
Foreign arrivals in South Africa were expected to increase from 9.9 million in 2009, to 12 million by 2015.
A strong growth in domestic tourism had offset a dip in foreign visitors, the result of the recent economic recession.
“Domestic tourism saw 15 million South Africans making 30 million domestic trips in 2009, with a total annual spend of R22 billion. This offset any foreign pull-back during the recession.”
The national tourism sector's strategy was to increase the number of domestic trips to 40 million by 2015. - Sapa