Africa’s travel industry has moved beyond recovery into renewed growth. The continent recorded 66 million international tourist arrivals in 2023, then 74 million in 2024, while several leading destinations reported double-digit increases. The figures below separate arrivals, receipts, transport, investment, and forecasts so that the scale and limits of Africa’s tourism growth are clear.
Contents
- Africa’s international tourism recovery
- Tourism earnings and investment
- Air travel and airline performance
- South Africa travel statistics
- Tanzania and Kenya travel statistics
- Morocco travel statistics
Africa’s international tourism recovery
UN Tourism’s CAF/67/4 report measured a strong return in the first quarter of 2024. Africa welcomed 5% more international arrivals in Q1 2024 than in Q1 2019, the pre-pandemic comparison year. It also welcomed 13% more arrivals than in Q1 2023. North Africa was ahead of its 2019 level by 23% in the same quarter.
The rebound differed substantially by country. Tanzania’s international arrivals were 53% higher in Q1 2024 than in Q1 2019. Morocco’s arrivals were 32% higher, while Algeria’s were 17% higher. These are percentage comparisons with Q1 2019, not counts of visitors, so they show the pace of recovery rather than the relative size of each market.
For context, global international arrivals reached about 285 million in Q1 2024, or 97% of the global 2019 level, according to the same UN Tourism report. Across the full year 2023, Africa recorded 66 million international tourist arrivals. Africa also recovered 95% of its pre-pandemic international tourism earnings in 2023, while global international tourism receipts reached USD 1.5 trillion, equal to 97% of their pre-pandemic level in real terms.
The next annual figures show further improvement. Voyages Afriq, quoting UN Tourism reporting, recorded 74 million international tourists in Africa in 2024. The same reporting put Africa’s tourism receipts at USD 43 billion in 2024 and tourism’s contribution to the continent’s GDP at 3.5%.
UN Tourism World Tourism Barometer data described Africa’s 2024 tourism recovery as 7% above 2019 levels. Arrivals were 12% higher than in 2023. The global tourism sector reached 99% of its 2019 level in 2024, while Africa exceeded that benchmark. The 2023 and 2024 figures use different reporting periods, so they should not be treated as a single continuous estimate without checking the underlying release dates.
Tourism earnings and investment
Tourism growth is measured not only by visitor numbers but also by the money visitors generate. In the UN Tourism CAF/67/4 report, Tanzania’s tourism receipts in Q1 2024 were 62% higher than in Q1 2019. Mauritius recorded a 46% increase over the same comparison, and Morocco recorded a 44% increase. These figures describe receipts, not arrivals, and therefore can reflect changes in spending as well as visitor volume.
Investment data points to an expanding pipeline of tourism capacity. Africa attracted 166 greenfield tourism projects during the 10 years covered by the UN Tourism report. Those projects represented USD 10.7 billion in capital investment and were expected to create more than 24,210 jobs.
By project count, the five leading African tourism investment destinations were Morocco, South Africa, Tanzania, Tunisia, and Nigeria. The five leading investor countries were the United States, Spain, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, and Belgium. The ranking is based on project count, not capital value or completed-room capacity, so it should not be read as a ranking of total investment dollars.
The national destination figures illustrate how this investment environment connects with demand. Morocco recorded 17.4 million visitors in 2024, according to the Moroccan head of government as reported by Morocco World News. That total was 20% higher than in 2023. South Africa recorded 8,919,370 total tourist arrivals in 2024, up 5.1% from 2023, according to the South Africa Department of Tourism’s 2024/25 annual report. Tanzania recorded 2,141,895 international tourist arrivals in 2024, according to the Tanzania National Bureau of Statistics.
Air travel and airline performance
Air access is a central part of Africa travel, but the continent’s aviation share remains relatively small. IATA reported that African carriers accounted for 2.2% of global passenger traffic by revenue passenger-kilometre share in 2024. African airlines’ annual traffic increased 13.2% from 2023, while Africa’s share of world airline passenger RPK was also 2.2%.
IATA’s September 2024 passenger release reported 12.2% year-over-year RPK growth for Africa and 6.9% ASK growth. The passenger load factor was 76.5%, an increase of 3.6 percentage points year over year. RPK measures passenger demand, while ASK measures available seat capacity; the two measures therefore describe different sides of airline growth.
Air cargo also expanded. African airlines’ cargo demand grew 8.5% year over year in 2024, and Africa represented 2.0% of global cargo traffic share, according to IATA’s 2024 cargo release.
Profitability remained narrow. IATA’s July 2024 Africa airline outlook forecast about USD 100 million in net profit for African airlines in 2024, equivalent to about USD 0.90 per passenger. The forecast net profit margin was 0.6%. Demand growth was forecast at 8.5% in RPK, capacity growth at 9.1% in ASK, and the load factor at 61.9%, compared with a forecast breakeven load factor of 59.8%.
IATA’s December 2024 airline outlook forecast Africa’s collective net profit margin at 0.9% in 2025. It forecast passenger demand growth of 8.0% and capacity growth of 7.7% for 2025. That outlook listed African airlines’ 2024 net profit forecast as USD 0.1 billion. These are forecasts published in the cited outlooks, not final audited results.
South Africa travel statistics
South Africa’s 2024 data shows the importance of regional travel. The country received 6,770,664 arrivals from Africa, representing 76% of its total tourist arrivals, according to a South African government tourism statement dated February 3, 2025. Zimbabwe was the leading African source market, with 2,183,260 arrivals.
Other source markets also grew. Arrivals from Ghana reached 36,656, up 149.0% from 2023. South Africa received 505,579 arrivals from the Americas, up 10.9%, and 1,258,706 arrivals from Europe, up 1.1%.
Statistics South Africa’s Tourism 2024 report recorded 11,422,730 foreign tourist arrivals and 306,494 non-visitors. Visitors represented 97.4% of foreign arrivals. The report’s transport split was:
| Arrival mode | Share of tourists in 2024 |
|---|---|
| Road | 69.7% |
| Air | 30.0% |
| Sea | 0.3% |
Among tourists arriving by air, OR Tambo International Airport handled 64.0% and Cape Town International Airport handled 34.9%. The purpose-of-visit profile was holiday-led: 96.9% came for holidays, 2.7% for business, and 0.4% for study. Medical travel accounted for 3,049 tourists.
South Africa recorded 30,805,000 total travellers in 2024, a decline of 0.8% year over year. Travel mode varied by market. SADC tourists mainly used road travel, at 91.6%. Overseas tourists mainly used air travel, at 92.0%, while other African tourists mainly used air travel, at 89.0%. These patterns show why a national total can contain very different travel behaviours by origin region.
Tanzania and Kenya travel statistics
Tanzania’s 2024 visitor economy grew in both volume and value. The Tanzania National Bureau of Statistics’ 2024 International Visitors Exit Survey recorded USD 3.9031 billion in tourism earnings, up 15.7% from 2023. International tourist arrivals reached 2,141,895, up 18.5% year over year.
The same survey stated that Tanzania’s tourism sector exceeded pre-pandemic levels by 40% in 2024. Post-COVID international visitor growth averaged 48% per year, compared with an average annual growth rate of 7% over the five years before COVID. Those averages describe different periods and should not be combined as a single long-run rate.
Kenya Tourism Board reporting described 2024 as a record year with 2.3 million tourist arrivals. MICE and business tourism accounted for 24% of total arrivals in the cited UNWTO figure for the previous year, equal to 461,042 visitors. Kenya targeted 2.8 million international visitors by the end of 2025 and 5.5 million visitors by 2027; both are targets, not recorded outcomes.
Kenya welcomed more than 42,000 visitors from the Middle East in 2024, and Middle East arrivals grew 15%. The flydubai route into Nairobi added four weekly flights, and Kenya Tourism Board said flydubai then served 12 African destinations. MKTE 2024 had a target of 5,000 attendees, a business-event target rather than a tourist-arrival count.
Morocco travel statistics
Morocco’s monthly and year-to-date figures show sustained momentum through 2024. Morocco recorded 7.4 million tourist arrivals by the end of June, up 14% from 2023. June alone brought 1.5 million visitors, 10% higher than June 2023.
By the end of August, Morocco had recorded 11.8 million tourists, with arrivals up 16% over the same period in 2023. By the end of November, the total reached 15.9 million tourist arrivals, up 20% year over year. Within the January-to-November increase, international arrivals rose 23%, while arrivals from Moroccans living abroad rose 17%.
Accommodation activity increased too. Morocco’s classified accommodation recorded 15.4 million overnight stays by the end of July 2024, up 8% year over year. Non-resident overnight stays rose 13% by July. Overnight stays are a lodging measure and should not be substituted for visitor arrivals.
Taken together, these figures describe a diverse travel market: continental recovery above 2019 levels, strong destination growth in North and East Africa, a South African market dominated by regional road travel, and expanding but thin airline profitability. The source periods and measurement definitions matter, especially when comparing arrivals, visitors, travellers, receipts, overnight stays, and forecasts.