New data collected by Yoco from 200 000 merchants across South Africa reveals that festive season international tourist spending was up by 23% year on year with travellers from the US leading the way as the highest spenders.
Data collected by the point-of-sale systems company between mid-November and the first week of January showed that international travellers spent twice as much as locals, averaging R627 (US$40) per transaction.
Despite the country receiving more visitors from Europe than North America, US travellers accounted for 40% of all spend. The UK contributed 10%, followed by Germany at 6%, the Netherlands at 2.7% and Australia at 1.5%.
“The data again highlights the importance of the American market and many other overseas markets, and the fact that the true value of tourism lies in spend and not pure visitor volumes,” said Tshifhiwa Tshivhengwa, CEO of the Tourism Business Council of South Africa.
According to data from SA Tourism, travellers from the US spend an average of around R32 900 (US$2 071) per trip in South Africa, significantly exceeding the UK’s average spend of R26 500 (US$1 668).
Tshivhengwa said the Yoco study further demonstrates the value provided by international travellers to small businesses around the country.
“The majority of these merchants are small business owners so it is encouraging to see the economic stimulation that international markets are providing.”
Illustrating the tourism boom in Cape Town, merchants in the Mother City processed 61.9% of all transactions, contributing over R500 million (US$31.5 million). Second-placed Johannesburg processed just 3.1% of transactions over the same period.
Tshivhengwa said this finding underlines the need to carefully examine tourist concentrations.
“It gives us homework as the tourism industry in finding ways to build attractions in other areas of the country and better market provinces outside the Western Cape. Cape Town’s economy is benefitting hugely from its strong tourism strategy and we need to spread this elsewhere.”
Cape Town International Airport achieved a record high 3.3 million international two-way passengers in 2025.
In July 2026, LATAM will begin three weekly flights into the city from São Paolo. During the 2025/26 summer season, United, Delta, Condor, KLM, Norse Atlantic, Air France, TAAG and Proflight Zambia all increased their frequencies. Emirates, Qatar Airways and Ethiopian Airlines are set to do the same this year.
