South Africa's tourism sector works hard to shake off Covid-19 blues
Image: Se-Anne Rall/IOL
South Africa's international tourism sector showed strong growth in early 2025, continuing its steady recovery from the pandemic downturn and reinforcing its importance to the economy.
In fact, the World Travel & Tourism Council expects South Africa's travel and tourism sector to 'reach a major milestone' this year and is set to support 1.9 million jobs, surpassing 2019 levels and marking an all-time high, underlining its role as a key employer and major source of opportunity, with the sector accounting for 11.3% of all jobs in South Africa.
Yet, even as more tourists come through South Africa's airports, international visitor spending, while set to grow steadily, is likely to remain below pre pandemic levels at R128.4 billion, trailing 2019 by R37.7bn, the Council said. Domestic visitor spending continues to show stronger resilience, with the 2025 total spend forecast at R445 billion, 3.8% above 2019 levels.
According to Statistics South Africa, 2.98 million travellers passed through South African borders in April 2025, marking a 21.4% increase compared to April 2024. This growth is part of a broader upward trend seen in recent months, with 2.84 million travellers recorded in March and 3.09 million in January 2025.
World Travel and Tourism Council CEO and President, Julia Simpson, said, 'South Africa's Travel and Tourism sector is slowly turning the corner. Jobs are leading the recovery, with employment expected to reach new highs, showing the enormous human impact of the sector's growth.'
Investec economist, Lara Hodes, said in a note that, despite the challenges facing the tourism industry, it remains a key sector for growth and job creation. Her calculations showed that tourist arrivals to South Africa rose by 5.7% year-on-year in the first quarter of 2025, with those travelling from overseas countries increasing by a modest 3.1% on an annualised basis, while overseas tourism declined by 0.9% as of March versus the same month last year.
'While the domestic tourism sector has rebounded notably from the devastation caused by the pandemic related lockdowns, it continues to face a number of challenges which weigh on optimal activity and investment,' said Hodes.
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She pointed to key constraints including 'elevated operational costs, inadequate and poorly maintained infrastructure, high levels of red tape preventing the efficient and timely delivery of key services and critically, an excessive crime rate, which is a significant deterrent for visitors.'
Yet, Statistics South Africa's latest print, for April, stated that 'a comparison between the movements in March 2025 and April 2025 indicates that the volume of arrivals, departures and transits increased for both South African residents and foreign travellers'.
Although only 35% of those entering South Africa stayed for a while, and 32.3% entered multiple times, the accommodation sector is also growing, albeit a bit slower than in February.
Hodes noted that income derived from the tourist accommodation industry, excluding restaurant and bar sales and other income, dropped to 6.9% year-on-year at the end of the first quarter, following February's 12.6% lift when compared to the same time last year.
The largest category, hotels, was largely responsible for March's lift, on the back of growth of 8.5% year-on-year, she said.
Tourism's contribution to South Africa's gross domestic product has grown, now estimated at 8.8%, supporting around 1.68 million jobs.
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