South African Tourism is partnering with the Travel Trade and broader tourism industry in showcasing South Africa at key SA Tourism facilitated platforms in North and Central Europe. SA Tourism invites South African travel trade partners tourism product and business owners to apply for The Getaway by Vakantiebeurs 2027 and Market Access Trade Engagements across the Netherlands Belgium and Germany in January 2027. The two platforms offer complementary opportunities to reach Dutch travellers directly and build relationships with tour operators and travel agents across the Netherlands Belgium and Germany.
Ismail Dockrat, Chief Operations Officer at South African Tourism, shared that collaboration with the private sector is essential to growing tourism to South Africa and creating market access for tourism businesses. The Netherlands Germany and Belgium are important source markets with opportunities to attract new visitors and encourage repeat travel. Through these platforms SA Tourism is connecting South African product owners including SMMEs with the tour operators and travel agents who package and sell the destination.
Germany and the Netherlands were South Africa’s second and third-largest European source markets respectively in 2025. Together with Belgium these markets contributed 481,267 tourist arrivals accounting for 34.0 pc of all tourist arrivals from Europe. South Africa recorded 140,338 tourist arrivals from the Netherlands between January and December 2025 up 6.0 pc on 2024. Germany contributed 290,795 arrivals an increase of 14.0 pc while Belgium recorded 50,134 arrivals up 10.9 pc. Growth continued during January to July 2026 with arrivals from the Netherlands reaching 84,002 up 11.6 pc compared with the same period in 2025.
Ismail Dockrat, Chief Operations Officer at South African Tourism, shared: “Collaboration with the private sector is essential to growing tourism to South Africa and creating market access for our tourism businesses. The Netherlands, Germany and Belgium are important source markets, with opportunities to attract new visitors and encourage repeat travel. Through these platforms, we are connecting South African product owners, including SMMEs, with the tour operators and travel agents who package and sell our destination. Working together allows us to bring a wider range of South African experiences to these markets and help more businesses benefit from international tourism.”
