South African tourist accommodation revenue up 9.9% in 2025
There are more than 90 000 active AirBnB listings in South Africa with about a third of them located in Cape Town.
The revenue from South African tourist accommodation rose by 9.9% in 2025 to R41.1 billion.
This excludes income from meals, banqueting and beverages, and tobacco sales.
Additionally, income comes from casino gambling, laundry and telephone services, rentals and fees received for transport services, offices, shops, and parking.
This income is roughly the same amount as the income from accommodation.
Statistics South Africa also does not cover rentals from short-term rentals provided by booking services such as AirBnB or booking.com.
There are more than 90 000 active AirBnB listings in South Africa with about a third of them located in Cape Town.
The survey covers the following tax registered private and public enterprises that are mainly engaged in providing short-stay commercial accommodation.
They are divided by Statistics South Africa into four categories.
These are: hotels, motels, botels and inns; then caravan parks and camping sites; also guest-houses and guest-farms; and finally ‘other’ accommodation.
Tourist arrivals in 2025
The number of tourist arrivals rose by 17.7% in 2025 to 10.5 million.
The majority of those came from neighbouring countries with the number of tourists from South African Development Community (SADC) surging by 19.6% to 7.9 million.
On the other hand, the number of overseas tourists only grew by 11.9% to 2.4 million. This increase is similar to the rise in tourist accommodation revenue.
Hotels dominate
An analysis of the December 2025 data, which is the peak holiday month, show that hotels dominate with a 57.8% share.
“Other” accommodation follows with 35.8%, while guest houses have a 4.5% share. Caravan parks only have a 1.8% share.
The relative revenue is also reflected in the occupancy rate with hotels at 56.6%, “other” accommodation at 36.2%, guest houses at 24.5% and caravan parks at 24.5%.
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