rankourabu

Interestingly, 98%+ came for a holiday too. Very few work/business visitors
I do see however given the numbers (93600 vs 29300) how the OP encountered far more Europeans than Americans

Swanhunter

This feels like the more relevant stat - and outside of Cape Town I'm surprised the US component is that high

Europe, 93 602 (56,5%); North America, 32 933 (19,9%); Asia, 18 830 (11,4%); The Middle East, 8 941 (5,4%); Australasia, 8 720 (5,3%) and Central and South America, 2 697 (1,6%)

iahphx

Despite your strong opinions, you made the fatal mistake of drawing your conclusions based on one month. Europeans come during northern winter. Numbers are still messed up due to Covid but, historically, the leading country of visitation is actually the UK.
https://www.statssa.gov.za/publicati...-51-022019.pdf

I'd also note that these numbers can be distorted based on "friends and family" travel vs. actual tourism. All I can say is that I just spent almost a month in the most popular areas for South African tourism and my encounters with other Americans was near zero. I think I encountered people speaking with American accents exactly twice. One time, we were sitting in a Kruger camp restaurant having lunch and a person at a nearby table came over to introduce himself because he was so excited to encounter another American. He had married a South African.

Admittedly, we didn't stay in the (few) luxury hotels in South Africa (we mostly stayed in national park "camp hotels" and small 4-star rentals). I suspect we would have encountered a few more Americans if we were doing luxury "travel agent arranged" travel.

The vast majority of tourists we encountered in January throughout the country were South Africans. But, especially along the Garden Route, there was a noticeable presence of Europeans. Our hosts said they received a lot of Germans. Many of our hosts and other people we encountered were fascinated by us being Americans, as were were obviously quite unusual.

Obviously, this is common sense. I think there are 3 flights a day now from the USA to South Africa. I haven't counted, but there are far, far more flights from Europe. Given the implosion of South African Airways and the elimination of their flights to America, I'm, sure the 2019 numbers exaggerate American tourism now.

And, as an American, I am offended that you think I'm calling my fellow Americans "insular, boorish and stupid." We're just people. The reality is most Americans know little about South Africa -- it's a place far away from the US -- and it would be a good thing if they knew more about this very interesting and affordable country to visit and came in larger numbers.

Swanhunter

2022 stats

The United Kingdom (UK), 283 031 (19,5%); United States of America (USA), 262 183 (18,1%); Germany, 173 146 (11,9%); The Netherlands, 90 289 (6,2%); France, 76 077 (5,2%); India, 55 506 (3,8%); Australia, 53 769 (3,7%); Canada, 35 501 (2,4%); Belgium, 34 826 (2,4%) and Switzerland, 33 257 (2,3%)

B747-437B

This is definitively not correct. I did a bunch of stuff with SA Tourism in 2022-23 and the largest source markets for international arrivals were African ones. The UK and USA were both outside the top 5 on an annual basis for 2022 and first half of 2023. They have a big screen in the lobby of Bojanala House (SA Tourism HQ in Sandton) which shows the number of visitors from each country.

Swanhunter

Interesting - I took this from Stats SA's 2022 summary.

EDIT: I took it from here
https://www.statssa.gov.za/publicati...-51-022022.pdf
the Overseas Grouping on Page 13.

For sure the biggest entries are neighbouring SADC countries

B747-437B

Yeah, they classify "Overseas" as "All countries other than Africa". African countries are in a separate table there. Fair enough.

iahphx

That does make sense. They must be excluding travel from other African nations. Interestingly, despite what seems like cronic underemployment in South Africa, there are a lot of "undocumented workers" -- often from Zimbabwe -- working in South Africa.

LAX_Esq

One month of perfectly good data that Americans were literally #1 in the world is sufficient to call into question your whole premise that there are "virtually no Americans in South Africa." You made the very bold claim that there are "virtually no Americans in South Africa." It's not my burden to definitively disprove it to your liking. I've posted enough contrary evidence to show that people should be highly skeptical of your claim. You made the very bold claim, and it's your burden to back it up. So far, you haven't backed it up -- short of some cute anecdotal stories.

iahphx

When was the last time you visited South Africa?
Honestly, if you think there a lot -- or even "some" -- Americans running around on vacation in that country, you are simply wrong. Unless you are (perhaps) on a luxury safari or something, you will almost never encounter an American, even on the tourist routes. Go and find out.

rankourabu

or something... arent Americans the biggest market for trophy hunting in SA?

LAX_Esq

We were in CPT in Summer 2023 and saw/met plenty of Americans at Table Mountain and the V&A Waterfront. But anecdotal evidence isn't worth too much. Numbers don't lie, and they refute your point.

tkelvin69

Yeah, like home schooling, not driving, not going to church, not shopping, and pretty much anything. Gun deaths is a leading cause in children. We know how to minimize risk but just won’t follow the successful lead by other countries.

B747-437B

Interestingly, Americans (and to a lesser extent Europeans) tend to skew heavily towards Western Cape as a province of primary destination (52%) while overall international visitor numbers skew very heavily to Gauteng and KZN instead. Similarly, Europeans (and to a lesser extent Americans) visit Mpumalanga in much higher numbers than other visitors.

bundubasher

I've travelled all over Southern and East Africa. The significant thing I notice is that primarily Yanks, Canucks, Europeans do not travel independently like what we see in the Americas and Europe. They arrive in deepest dark Africa, scurry from lodges to camps, missing so much of the real Africa.