Tourism continues to contribute significantly to South Africa's national economy, with a 200 percent expansion of its contribution to the country's GDP since 1990, the government said on Monday.

Tourism directly represents three percent of the country's GDP and supports over 617, 000 jobs, said the statement issued by the International Cooperation, Trade and Security Cluster.

Including indirect impacts, tourism generated 9.7 percent of the GDP and supported over 1.4 million jobs last year, according to the statement.

The country received more than 3.8 million foreign visitors, generating 20.3 billion rand (about 1.74 billion US dollars) revenue to the economy.

"The tourism industry is a major contributor to South African economic growth, jobs and employment of our citizens. This shows that on-going efforts to showcase our country as a tourist, investment and destination of choice are bearing much needed fruits during this low global economic outlook," the statement said.

"There is great potential for further growth, as we move towards the goal of becoming one of the top 20 global tourist destinations by 2020."

South Africa's marketing investment strikes a balance between growth in domestic, regional African and long-haul tourism; between traditional markets and emerging source markets; and between leisure, business and events tourism.

In September, South African Tourism opened an office in Sao Paolo, Brazil, to serve the growing markets of Latin America.

Domestic marketing campaigns are being stepped up to get more South Africans to visit their own country. Over the past five months, much work has gone into planning to improve infrastructure that will enhance destination offerings to tourists, with quality assurance embedded, according to the statement.

This includes more detailed planning for a new Tourism Incentive Programme which will be launched next year, as well as more focussed leveraging of the Expanded Public Works Programme investment in physical infrastructure and skills development. Endi

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