South Africa's foreign tourist market grew by 3% to more than 8.3-million in 2011, driven by a surge in German and Asian visitors, Tourism Minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk said in Cape Town on Thursday.

Marketing efforts in its trading partners' countries had paid off as the country capitalised on enhanced international awareness after the 2010 soccer World Cup, he said.

"The hard work by all in the tourism industry has paid off as we recorded a 3.3% increase in our 2011 international tourist arrival figures.

"While South Africa's core markets in Europe and North America remain our major source of long-haul tourists, tourism's overall growth in 2011 was largely due to a 14.6% growth in the emerging markets of Asia."

The figures show a 26.2% rise in visitors from India to 90 367, while 84 883 Chinese tourists visited compared to 68 309 in 2010.

The number of visitors from Europe shrank by 3.5% after the European Union's debt crisis.

Visitors from Germany, however, increased to 235 774, a 9.3% rise on the previous year. This was in contrast to the Greek market, which shrank by 28.7% to 5 822 visitors.

The UK remained South Africa's strongest market with 420 500 visitors, but with 52 500 or 7.2% less visitors than the previous year.

About 287 614 tourists from the US visited South Africa in 2011, a 1.9% increase on 2010.

Van Schalkwyk said the World Cup had cushioned South Africa from "difficulties" in the European market in 2010.

He said given that Europe's woes were not yet over. A drop in tourists from this market was expected in 2011 as price conscious consumers chose to travel for shorter periods.

"The global economic crisis and high unilateral taxes have undoubtedly had an impact on us, but Europe remains our bread and butter market."

Van Schalkwyk said South Africa's neighbouring counties continued to be major source markets for tourist arrivals, with most coming from Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Mozambique, Swaziland and Botswana.

According to the figures, 1.553-million Zimbabweans visited South Africa in 2011 compared to 1.513-million in 2010.

Tourists from Africa were major leisure tourists, attracted by South Africa's beauty, nightlife, lifestyle and shopping attractions.

"What the global economic crisis has illustrated is that building the domestic market and the African land market is crucial to protecting our tourism industry against global shocks," the minister said.