South African Ambassador to China Siyabonga Cyprian Cwele Photo: Courtesy of South African Tourism

South African Ambassador to China Siyabonga Cyprian Cwele told the Global Times on Monday the development of the South African tourism industry is getting a big boost from infrastructure projects under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), and Chinese companies are the first to be considered as cooperation partners because of good bilateral relations. 

"The roads we are building under the BRI are connecting the most remote and most exciting areas of South Africa," said Cwele, noting that they will take tourists from China and the world to more tourism sites. 

Cwele said that Chinese businesspeople prefer investing in real economy such as local natural reserves and service facilities including hotels. With the increasing number of international visitors to South Africa, facilities backed by Chinese companies can generate revenue for local government and create jobs, he said. 

The 2024 Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation wrapped up on Friday, as Cwele noted that the summit offered an efficient cooperation mechanism for African countries including South Africa, and will further increase China-South Africa bilateral economic and trade cooperation. 

A view of sunrise over Johannesburg, South Africa Photo: VCG

China is one of South Africa's important tourist source markets and its No.1 growth market, according to data released by the South African Tourism, the tourism marketing agency of the South African government, during a tourism promotional event on Monday.  

In 2023, the number of Chinese tourists to South Africa jumped by 204 percent year-on-year. From January to March 2024, the number of Chinese tourists entering South Africa increased by 82 percent. It is expected that by 2026, Chinese tourism to South Africa will return to the 2019 level, said Lisa Hu, China trade relations manager at South African Tourism.

Aside from infrastructure cooperation under the BRI, Cwele called for more efforts to promote sustainable tourism growth in his country by learning from China's experience in environmental protection. 

He also stressed that technology cooperation with China in areas such as instant digital payment tools that will facilitate the country's tourism development.