Overseas arrivals in South Africa during July this year leapt by 20.1% in comparison to the same month last year, driven by significant increases from all of the country’s source market regions, according to the latest International Tourism Report from Statistics South Africa.
Arrivals from the largest overseas source market region, Europe, grew by 15.4% to 87 654 – accounting for 48% of overall overseas arrivals. The UK market, which has enjoyed an accelerated recovery this year, recorded particularly impressive growth of 31.9%.
The North American market grew by 14.5% while the Australasian (45.6% growth) and the Central and South American (29%) markets continued the strong rebounds experienced this year.
Arrivals from Asia grew by 16.5% with the largest markets of India and China recording 3.5% and 2.8% growth respectively.
The Middle East surged by 57.4%, driven largely by a 70.3% increase from Saudia Arabia.
Overseas arrivals totalled just under 1.3 million between January and July this year – 6.6% growth from the comparative period last year but still hovering at just under 90% of the pre-COVID 2019 figure.
