{"id":22983,"date":"2026-01-28T05:56:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-28T03:56:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jhb-webdevelopers\/channelafrica\/news\/sa-tourism-hits-10-5-million-visitors-in-2025-up-17-6-since-2024\/"},"modified":"2026-02-27T16:33:53","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T14:33:53","slug":"sa-tourism-hits-10-5-million-visitors-in-2025-up-17-6-since-2024","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/sa-tourism-hits-10-5-million-visitors-in-2025-up-17-6-since-2024\/","title":{"rendered":"SA tourism hits 10.5 million visitors in 2025, up 17.6% since 2024"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>South Africa (SA) welcomed nearly 10.5 million international visitors in 2025, marking a 17.6% increase on the previous year.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Tourism Minister Patricia de Lille said the figure is the highest since 2018, with arrivals up 26% compared to 2019.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Speaking at a briefing in Pretoria ahead of Meetings Africa 2026, De Lille said the country\u2019s tourism sector has moved beyond Covid recovery.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We are not recovering anymore; we are growing,&#8221; she said. &#8220;It is no surprise that SA was named Best Destination in Africa 2025 by the Travel Weekly Reader\u2019s Choice Awards. This is the result of deliberate policy choices.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>De Lille noted that careful planning and investment have helped position SA as a top destination for travellers from across the globe, with growth expected to continue in the coming year.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;ChannelAfrica&#8211;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":22984,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"news-type":[26],"class_list":["post-22983","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-general_news","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"SA welcomed nearly 10.5 million international visitors in 2025, marking a 17.6% increase","published_date":"2026-01-28 07:29:50","news_description":"SA welcomed nearly 10.5 million international visitors in 2025, marking a 17.6% increase","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/22983","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/22983\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26099,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/22983\/revisions\/26099"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22984"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22983"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=22983"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}