ABSTRACT
In March 2003, while many of the world’s largest tourist destinations still suffered extensive setbacks from the September 11th attacks on the US World Trade Center, South African Tourism, the national tourism promotion agency proclaimed the country as ‘the world’s fastest-growing destination’. The reason was that while global tourism had fallen and international arrivals in regions such as the Americas had declined by 13m since 2001, as a direct consequence of the attacks, tourist arrivals from South Africa’s main overseas markets (predominantly from Western Europe) had risen during 2002. In total, international arrivals increased by 20 per cent. According to the South African government, this heralded a new era for tourism growth.
