South Africa’s inbound international arrivals for March grew by just over 13% compared with the same period last year, according to the March 2024 International Tourism report published by Statistics SA.
Statistics SA has changed the name of its monthly tourism statistics report from ‘Tourism and Migration’ to ‘International Tourism’ starting in April.
Overall, overseas arrivals jumped from 187 631 in March 2023 to 216 563 in March this year.
When compared with March 2019, international visitors are at 91.5% of pre-COVID levels. This is an increase on the 85% pre-COVID levels registered in February.
Arrivals from Europe, North America, Central and South America, and Asia, all witnessed reasonable growth when compared with March last year.
Only arrivals from the Middle East and Australasia dipped slightly.
Stats from March 2019, 2023, and 2024 are as follows:
The table shows that only two source markets (Australia and India) did not outperform March 2023’s arrivals.
It also shows that arrivals from the US, Germany, and Belgium exceeded pre-pandemic levels.
Click here to view Tourism Update’s interactive map of the latest inbound statistics.
