South African tourism booms despite Iran war
The Southern African Development Community (SADC) countries were the most important source of tourists. They grew by 15.8%.
Black News 
The number of tourist arrivals rose by 12.5% year-on-year in March 2026 to 911 962. The number of overseas tourists increased by only 4.2% year-on-year to 223 641. This shows the impact of the Iran war as in January 2026, the growth rates of the total and overseas tourist were very similar.
Particularly, 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.
Surprisingly, the differing growth rates were already evident in February as the respective growth rates were 13.1% year-on-year and only 3.3% year-on-year.
Consequently, the Southern African Development Community (SADC) countries were the most important source of tourists. They grew by 15.8% year-on-year to 670 4908. This is almost triple the number of overseas tourists.
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% 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 March 2025 Austria had been the fourth highest source of European tourists.
March 2026 overseas tourist arrivals
Statistics South Africa said the 10 leading overseas countries in terms of the number of tourists visiting South Africa in March 2026 were: the UK, Germany, the US, France, the Netherlands, Australia, Canada, Brazil, Russia and Switzerland.
Tourists from these 10 countries constituted 76.1% of all tourists from overseas countries. In January 2026, tourists from these 10 countries constituted 73.7% of all tourists from overseas countries. The increased share in March 2026 was due to the decline in Asian and Middle East tourists.
A comparison of movements in the 10 leading countries between March 2025 and March 2026 shows that the number of tourists increased for 7 of the 10 leading countries. The countries that had year ago declines were the US, the Netherlands and Canada. Brazil had the highest increase of 26.8%.
2025 overseas tourist arrivals
Although the UK normally retains its top spot as a source of overseas tourist arrivals each month, the 12-month total in 2025 reveals some fascinating details.
So for instance, Russia and Switzerland are not in the Top Ten on an annual basis. Instead, their places are taken by India and Italy.
Cape Town versus Johannesburg airports
Cape Town continues to attract more European tourists than Johannesburg.
In March 2026, Cape Town saw 78 743 arrivals from Europe, while Johannesburg only received 62 589. In March 2018, Cape Town welcomed only 64 793 compared with Johannesburg’s 81 756.
Disappointingly, there was a 3.6% decline in European visitors to both airports between March 2018 and March 2026. Other countries have had far higher growth rates in tourism.
One wonders what Tourism South Africa has been doing for the past eight years.
Do you think we should have grown tourists from Europe over the past eight years?
