The South African tourism boom continued in April despite the Middle East conflict. The number of tourist arrivals jumped by 19.5% year-on-year in April to 989 329. This followed a 12.5% year-on-year gain in March 2026 to 911 962.
However, the number of overseas tourists increased by only 2.0% year-on-year in April to 181 796. This shows the impact of the Iran war as in January 2026, the growth rates of the total and overseas tourist were very similar.
In January 2026, the total number of tourist arrivals rose by 11.8% year-on-year. The number of overseas tourists increased by 11.6% year-on-year.
The Southern African Development Community (SADC) countries were the most important source of tourists. They surged by 24.1% year-on-year in April to 787 489. This compared with a 15.8% year-on-year gain in March to 670 490. SADC tourists therefore accounted for 80% of total tourist arrivals in April.
Impact of the Iran war
The airport arrivals data confirmed the slowdown in overseas tourism growth. The international category was the most affected by the war. This is because a fair amount of international air traffic to South Africa come from the Middle East hubs of Abu Dhabi, Doha and Dubai.
These were affected as major international airlines avoided the war zone. The result was that the year-on-year growth slowed to 4.9% in March from 8.6% in December.
Consequently, tourists from the Middle East plunged by 60.3% year-on-year in March. Tourists from Asia were also badly affected and they declined by 17.1% year-on-year.
The surprise was a 69.8% plummet in visitors from Austria. In 2025 Austria had been the fourth highest source of European tourists.
April 2026 overseas tourist arrivals
Statistics South Africa said the 10 leading overseas countries in terms of the number of tourists visiting South Africa in April 2026 were: the UK, the US, Germany, The Netherlands, France, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Belgium, and Switzerland.
A comparison of movements in the 10 leading countries between April 2025 and April 2026 shows that the number of tourists increased for 7 of the 10 leading countries. The countries that had year ago declines were the UK, Germany and Australia. In March the US, the Netherlands and Canada were the countries that had year ago declines.
April 2026 SADC tourist arrivals
Zimbabwe and Mozambique each contributed more tourist arrivals than the total overseas arrivals. Zimbabwe contributed 228 371 and Mozambique 207 158.
Surprisingly only one of the 10 SADC leading countries had a year ago decline in April. This was Namibia where the number eased to 14 821 from 15 012.
The South African tourism boom continued in April, but it was increasingly reliant on tourists from SADC countries.
