Tourist arrivals from China in January this year nearly doubled compared to January 2015, South Africa's Minister of Tourism Derek Hanekom said on Tuesday.
And in February the figure grew by more than half on the same month in 2015, Hanekom told MPs while delivering his budget vote speech.
To attract more tourists, the minister recently visited China and India, which are key source markets for South Africa.
"In China we saw the success of the decision to allow travel agencies to apply for visas on behalf of travellers," Hanekom said.
This was one of the moves by South Africa to ease visa regulations. Previously, tourists had to apply for visas in person.
"The Chinese market is now rebounding very strongly," Hanekom said.
All indications are that this phenomenal growth is set to continue, Hanekom said.
He blamed the strict visa regulations introduced in 2014 for the decline in tourist arrivals last year.
"Despite two decades of consistent and impressive growth, 2015 was not a good year for tourism in our country," Hanekom said.
Coupled with global and local economic pressures which took their toll and perceptions of health risks that discouraged travel to Africa, visa and other travel documentation requirements had a further negative impact on tourism, he said.
The result was that international tourist arrivals declined by 6.8 percent, compared to the previous year, according to Hanekom.
Tourism is now recovering rapidly from last year's decline and 2016 promises to be a year of strong growth for tourism in South Africa, he said.
"This means more jobs for our people, more business for our operators, and more revenue for our economy," said the minister.
The World Travel and Tourism Council estimates that tourism will earn 120 billion rand (about 8.5 billion U.S. dollars) in export earnings, and contribute more than 380 billion rand (about 26.8 billion dollars) to the SA economy this year.
In January this year, over one million tourists from different countries arrived in South Africa, 15 percent more than in January last year, while in February tourist arrivals increased by 18 percent, Hanekom cited official figures as saying.
"This is spectacular recovery. And the growth trend is set to continue," he said.
