Strong Europe Performance Fuels South African Air Tourism Growth in 2025
South African Tourism has reached a landmark milestone in its global recovery and growth journey, with international arrivals reaching 10.48 million between January and December 2025. This represents a 17.6% increase compared to 2024 and marks the highest number of international arrivals on record.
Europe continues to be a critical growth engine, with arrivals up 12.6% between January and December 2025, underlining a strong year-end momentum. Exceptional double-digit growth was recorded across key markets, including the UK (+15.4%), Germany (+14.0%), Austria (+15.6%), Switzerland (+13.2%), Sweden (+12.5%), Belgium (+10.9%) and Italy (+10.2%).
Commenting on the performance, Ian Utermohlen, Regional General Manager (RGM): Europe at South African Tourism, notes that: “These results reflect not only sustained demand for South Africa as a long-haul destination, but also the impact of highly targeted, locally relevant initiatives implemented by our Europe hubs. Europe has been a key driver of South Africa’s recovery and record-setting growth in 2025.
UK & Ireland Hub – Top Source Market
The United Kingdom has overtaken the United States as South Africa’s leading source market, cementing its position as the top contributor to overseas arrivals. Recording a 15.4% growth, while Ireland achieved 9.5%. This performance follows a series of innovative, high-impact initiatives by the UK & Ireland hub, which, since October 2024, included high-impact consumer and trade engagements that have significantly strengthened demand for travel to South Africa. These include the hub’s execution of the “Live South Africa” campaign, which engaged more than 4 million consumers. This, coupled with brand affinity work through the TV series with Gary Barlow, reached over 6 million UK consumers. Lastly, there has been increased confidence and capacity on all three direct airline partners, British Airways, Virgin Atlantic and Norse Atlantic Airways, who have been instrumental in meeting the uplift in demand. The hub remains focused on supporting its trade partners through joint marketing, training programmes and investment in key UK platforms, ensuring they are equipped to convert the growing interest into sales and are instrumental in ensuring a strong spread across the destination.
South Europe Hub – Fourth Largest European Market
The South Europe Hub recorded mixed but encouraging performance, with France growing by 7.3%, Italy by 10.2%, Spain by 8.2%, while Portugal recorded a marginal decline of -0.2%.
We sincerely thank and recognise Team South Africa, including the private sector, our provinces, key stakeholders, South African Missions in Europe and the UK, and our European distribution and business partners, for their outstanding support and leadership. Despite ongoing challenges related to airlift and flight costs, our collective effort has strengthened our position and leaves us well placed to continue growing arrivals to South Africa,” concludes Utermohlen.
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