South Africa’s tourism minister said yesterday that the industry is becoming increasingly important to the country’s economy as its share of GDP rose again last year, according to a report on Business Day.

Environmental Affairs and Tourism Minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk said the tourism industry contributed an estimated 8.4% of gross domestic product (GDP) to the economy in 2008, up 12% from the year before.

Van Schalkwyk added that he expects tourism to contribute about 12% to GDP within the next five years.

The bigger contribution to GDP came despite slower growth in foreign arrivals, which rose just 5.5% last year due to the global financial crisis, down sharply from the double digit growth South Africa has seen in recent years.

“The South African industry continued to perform well in spite of pressures exerted by the global financial crisis that had seen growth in the global industry shrink to 1,3% last year,” said Van Schalkwyk.

Currently tourism is not accounted for separately in GDP figures, as its effect across many sectors makes its total contribution difficult to account for.

From next month, however, Statistics SA, alongside the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism, South African Tourism and the Reserve Bank, will launch the Tourism Satellite Account, an internationally recognised tool of measuring the economic contribution of tourism across all sectors.