CAPE TOWN, Sept. 19 (Xinhua) -- International travel to South Africa made a robust comeback in the first seven months of this year, showing a promising trend in its tourism recovery, Tourism Minister Patricia de Lille said on Tuesday.
From January to July 2023, a total of 4.8 million international tourists arrived in South Africa, signifying a remarkable 70.6 percent surge compared to the same period in 2022, the minister said at the launch of the 2023 Tourism Summer Campaign in the Eastern Cape province.
De Lille said that while the resurgence is undoubtedly encouraging, the figures still lag behind the pre-pandemic levels of 2019 by a 19.0 percent shortfall.
Of the 4.8 million arrivals, the African region had the biggest share, while Europe played a significant role contributing 14.3 percent of the total, de Lille said.
In the first half of 2023, South Africans took 18.8 million domestic overnight trips, up 23.4 percent from the same period of 2022. Overnight spend was up by 21.2 percent to reach 52.2 billion rand (about 2.8 billion U.S. dollars), she said.
During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, when international travel faced severe restrictions due to global travel bans, South African's tourism sector leaned heavily on domestic tourism to sustain itself, according to de Lille, who extended thanks to local travelers for exploring the country when conditions permitted. ■