South Africa has finally breached pre-COVID tourism levels after recording a 35.8% year-on-year surge in international arrivals in the month of October although arrivals from overseas are still around 10% behind those recorded in 2019.
According to Statistics South Africa’s latest International Tourism Report, total arrivals between January and end-October hit over 8.56 million, representing a 2% increase from the equivalent 2019 figure.
Overseas arrivals for the period totalled just over 1.9 million – still 9.4% behind the 2019 figure of 2.1 million. The largest source market region of Europe was 11% behind 2019 while North America exceeded pre-COVID levels by 4.5%. Gains from Australasia and the Middle East (14% and 12% up on 2019 figures respectively) were offset by a delayed return of arrivals from Asia (down 31%) and Central and South America (down 20%).
TBCSA CEO Tshifhiwa Tshivhengwa said, while breaching the total arrivals milestone is cause for celebration, stronger focus is needed on growing key overseas source markets.
“It is, of course, encouraging to note that we are on track to break 2019’s full-year arrivals figures and to see some key regions and African air markets reaching recovery. Our focus now needs to be on growing total overseas arrivals to beyond pre-COVID and focusing on the markets with high spend,” said Tshivhengwa.
In 2024, overseas markets accounted for 49.7% of South Africa’s tourism spend despite only accounting for around 24% of the total 8.9 million arrivals recorded for the year, according to SA Tourism data.
“We need to double down on destination marketing through a functional SA Tourism, backed by the weight of the private sector and emphasis on rebuilding long-haul air capacity,” Tshivhengwa said.
In an October interview with Tourism Update, SA Tourism’s Regional GM for Europe, Ian Utermohlen, pointed out that long-haul air capacity from Europe, for example, was still down 22% from 2019.
FEDHASA National Chairperson Brett Tungay highlighted the need to drill down on data related to geographic spread.
“This is a positive milestone but we will have to await statistics on where these visitors are going and what the impact has been on occupancies and spend by specific region in South Africa.”
Tourism Minister Patricia de Lille said the figures indicate the country is now in a period of sustained growth.
“These numbers reflect the hard work of our industry partners, the improved ease of travel, enhanced air access and our continued focus on service excellence and new tourism experiences. South Africa is becoming more competitive and visitors are responding,” she said.
Click here to view our interactive data on the latest and historical tourism stats.
