The February 2020 Tourism & Migration figures, released recently by Statistics South Africa, show a marginal (1%) increase in international arrivals compared with February 2019.

This was before the first cases of COVID-19 were confirmed in South Arica in March.

Holidays remained the main purpose of visits to South Africa – 97% (778 066) of all tourists who came to the country in February 2020. Europe, at 70%, had the highest overall number of overseas tourists. This is a 5% increase from the month before.

Tourism arrivals from Africa dropped significantly from January to February this year. In January there were 828 098 African tourists, 97% of them from SADC countries. In February, however, there were only 538 349 African tourists, 97% from SADC countries.