Significant recovery in tourism numbers

Tourism Minister, Lindiwe Sisulu, says the most significant recovery in South Africa’s tourism numbers was seen in the African market.

Sisulu held a press briefing to present domestic and international tourism performance statistics.

The report covers the 2021/2022 reporting period.

Sisulu says visitors from Europe were in a close second, while visitors from the Americas were third highest.

Forward bookings increased by an impressive 328% in August 2022.

Sisulu said that between August and October 2022 there was a 287% increase in visitors confirming their bookings and travel plans to SA.

For the period August 2022 to January 2023 the highest number of booking confirmations were received from visitors from the UK, USA, and Germany.

She says the tourism sector has done incredibly well and has made significant strides towards recovery.

South Africa is optimistic about its tourism prospects, following the total rescinding of the Covid-19 restrictive regulations and lockdowns in June 2022.

Domestic performance

The biggest driver of domestic travel in the first six months of 2022 was the easing of Covid-19 travel restrictions.

In the first quarter of 2021, South Africa was on adjusted alert level 3, with the closure of beaches including other restrictions which impacted the movement and gathering of people.

Between January and June 2022, 15,2 million domestic trips were taken.

Sisulu says this is a major win for the tourism sector, as this is higher than pre-pandemic levels, indicating that South Africa’s domestic tourism sector also experienced the revenge travel trend.

Furthermore, the share of holiday trips has increased by 23,8% compared with the same period in 2021.

Additionally, the average spend per trip has increased by 28,6% meaning South Africans saved their travel money during lockdown travel restrictions to take that one trip they have been looking forward to for almost two years.

On average South Africans spend R 2,850 on their domestic trips.

International performance

International arrivals are still 54% below 2019 levels. Yet, there has been a steady improvement from January to June 2022.

In the first half of the year, Europe was the best performing region, despite security concerns mounting due to the conflict in Ukraine.

The Americas are the second-best performing region, this market is slowly making its way back to pre-pandemic levels, performing at minus 40% below 2019 levels.

Recovery in Asia and the Pacific is much slower, due to border closures and strict travel policies.

The total arrivals for January to June 2022 were 2,285,746 and this was a 147% increase from January to June of 2021.

The biggest market in terms of absolute numbers was the African Land markets; these markets had a 109% increase in arrivals compared to the same period in 2021.

The Africa Air markets brought in 1,634,244 arrivals. So far in 2022, Zimbabwe accounted for most arrivals to South Africa. Mozambique tailed closely in second place, shadowed by Lesotho in third place.

Arrivals from the Americas increased by 331% and represented 128,991 arrivals.

Europe had the most considerable percentage increase in arrivals of 563%.

The total number of European arrivals from January to June 2022 was 356,352.