BY MBONO MDLULI
MBABANE – In November 2024, 72 685 tourists managed to visit Eswatini.
This number shows a slight decrease in the number of visitors, compared to October 2024, which recorded 75 243 tourists who visited the country. However, November 2024’s statistics show that there has been an increase of 7.9 percent, compared to November 2023.
Source markets such as South Africa and Mozambique had 40 888 and 11 808 visitors, respectively. These numbers showed an increase of 2.7 percent and 4.6 percent, respectively. Zimbabwe had 5 258 visitors, showing an increase of 62.5 percent.
Among the overseas markets, France had the most visitors in November, recording 1 970 visitors, showing an increase by 26.8 percent, compared to November 2023. Travellers from Germany were 1 440, showing a decrease of 6.8 percent, compared to last year. Travellers from the Netherlands were 1 216, showing a decrease of 13.4 percent, compared to November 2023.
This publication on Monday, December 16, 2024 reported that Eswatini recorded an impressive number of visitors within 10 months this year. According to Eswatini Tourism Authority (ETA) Head of Marketing Chunky Dlamini, tourists that visited Eswatini from January to October 2024 are 780 505.
These statistics, according to Dlamini, show that the performance of this industry improved by 12.2 percent when compared with last year. Dlamini said each year was divided into four peak seasons, where tourist inflow seemed to be at its peak in the country. She said the peak seasons were January, April, September, and December.
Explaining further, Dlamini said during December and January, people were usually away from work, having closed for the festive season. Another reason why December and January were peak seasons, according to Dlamini, was that most people travelled from Europe, Asia, and North America because they wanted to move away from the winter season in the northern part of the globe, to enjoy the warm temperatures at the global south, where Eswatini was situated.
She said in April, what made people to travel were mostly the Easter holidays. September, according to Dlamini, was busy because Eswatini had many events during this time. There were events such as Umhlanga, Swazi Rally, Eswatini International Trade Fair, and other events that attracted tourists.
