South Africa achieved over one million overseas tourist arrivals in the first half of 2024 as the country continued on a sluggish progression towards pre-COVID figures.

The latest international tourism report from Statistics South Africa indicates, this year, the country reached 1.064 million arrivals from overseas (85% of the 1.25m overseas arrivals recorded in the first half of 2019). Including intra-African tourists, total arrivals were 4.44m (89% of the 5.095m in the first half of 2019).

Overseas arrivals are up by 8.2% compared to the first half of 2023 with the top source markets of Europe and the United States showing increases of 5.6% and 7.5% respectively. Arrivals from Central and South America grew by 92.5% to 36 699 with increases of 12.8% and 7.8% from Asia (107 557 arrivals) and Australasia (54 831) respectively.

When compared with the first half of 2019, figures from the top source market region of Europe are worryingly low: 627 734 arrivals were just under 85% of the pre-COVID figure of 740 951. This under-performance is counterbalanced by the strength of the North American market, which exceeded the 2019 figure by 0.3% at 216 555 arrivals.

Arrivals from Asia were just 68% of the 2019 half-year figure of 158 329 with Central and South America at 65%. Australasia arrivals were better, reaching 93% of the 2019 half-year figure.

Click here to see our interactive map of the latest inbound tourism stats.