After a prolonged period of muted performance in 2024, the critically-important European market appears to be returning to South Africa in full force, contributing towards an overall 8.6% year-on-year increase in overseas arrivals during November.
The latest Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) International Tourism Report shows inbound arrivals from the European continent in November – the start of South Africa’s annual peak tourist season – surged by more than 10% compared with the same month in 2023. The 142 434 arrivals from the continent were at 86% of the arrivals for the comparative period in 2019.
Arrivals from Germany were especially notable, surging by 32% year-on-year to 39 794, comfortably surpassing arrivals from the UK (34 132) to become the country’s top overseas source market. The third-largest overseas source market for the month, the US, remained level year-on-year at just over 26 000 arrivals.
Overseas arrivals for the month totalled 212 355 – still 14% behind the comparative figure for 2019.
The rebound from Europe will be warmly welcomed by South Africa’s tourism sector. Key stakeholders had voiced concern to Tourism Update about muted long-haul travel from the continent in 2024 due to elections, the cost-of-living crisis and geopolitical issues. Stats SA’s year-to-date data up to the end of November shows that the continent’s recovery rate post-COVID has lagged well behind the other leading region of North America. A total of just over 1.1 million visitors from Europe arrived in the country, equating to 80% of the comparative 2019 figure. By comparison, North America surpassed 2019 year-to-date figures by over 3% to record just over 400 000 arrivals.
While December figures have not yet been collated, South Africa is unlikely to meet the 10.7 million overall arrivals target set by Tourism Minister Patricia de Lille for 2024. By the end of November, the country had recorded a total (including intra-African arrivals) of just under eight million tourists for the year.
Click here to view our interactive map of the latest and historical arrivals trends.
