KWAZULU Natal still holds the lion's share of the domestic tourism market with 42% of the tourists flocking to this province. The Western Cape commands 14% of the domestic market's attention, while the Eastern Cape follows closely with 13%.
Gauteng drew only 11% of this market from October 1999 to January 2000.
These statistics were revealed in the first phase (of three) of a special tourism survey commissioned by Tourism KwaZulu Natal to determine, among others, which provincial destinations were visited and the duration of stay at each destination.
The other two phases deal with the periods February to May 2000 and June to September 2000. Each phase involves interviewing adult male respondents from 900 South African households.
Visitors from Gauteng made up the bulk of the tourists to KZN, indicating that 37% of the visitors were from this province.
These figures also indicated a growth of 9% in visitors from Gauteng - climbing from 19% during the same period last year to 28%.
"This was possibly a result of the KZN millennium campaign, which was targeted particularly at residents from that province," says James Seymour, market research manager for Tourism KwaZulu Natal.
However, a country-wide rating of tourism to the province, compared with last year's figures, indicates a significant drop in domestic tourism - from 51% to 38%.
Seymour mainly attributes this to a universal tendency to stay at home over the millennium period due to fears of possible Y2K problems as well as huge price hikes for tourism accommodation.
"It is clear the province has overcome perceptions related to violence and is making headway by tackling crime-related issues."
The survey shows only 10% of the respondents felt violence was a reason to avoid the province, compared with 27% last year.
The average length of stay for tourists in the province has extended from 5,5 days to a full 6 days.
Key attractions, according to the survey, were the beaches, the arts and craft centres and museums.
(Adele Mackenzie)
