IMPROVING LIVES THROUGH DATA ECOSYSTEMS

In January 2017, 3 815 402 travellers (arrivals, departures and transits) passed through South Africa's ports of entry. They were made up of 995 727 South African residents and 2 819 675 foreign travellers.
Foreign arrivals, 1 559 295 were made up of 120 373 non-visitors and 1 438 922 visitors.

The visitors were broken down as follows:

• 398 388 who arrived and departed on the same day, and
• 1 040 534 who stayed overnight (tourists).
  

Tourists increased by 2,8% from 1 012 641 in January 2016.

They were constituted as follows:

• Overseas tourists (245 074), who increased by 14,0% from 214 903 in January 2016.
  o The highest increase, 34,1% was for tourists from France (from 11 728 in January 2016 to 15 725 in January 2017), followed by Sweden, 28,6% (from 5 625 in January 2016 to 7 233 in January 2017) and China, 28,3% (from 9 406 in January 2016 to 12 066 in January 2017).
• Tourists from SADC (780 275), who decreased by 0,2% from 782 002 in January 2016.
  o The highest decrease, 8,7% was for tourists from Botswana (from 44 458 in January 2016 to 40 604 in January 2017.
• Tourists from 'other' African countries (14 402), who decreased by 4,3% from 15 048 in January 2016.
  o The highest decrease, 15,7% was for tourists from Côte d'Ivoire (from 230 in January 2016 to 194 in January 2017, followed by Nigeria, 11,0% (from 5 381 in January 2016 to 4 791 in January 2017).
• 783 tourists, whose country of origin were unspecified.
  

About three quarters, 765 599 (73,6%) of tourists used road transport and about a quarter, 271 688 (26,1%) used air transport, while 3 247 (0,3%) used sea transport.

The majority of tourists, 1 006 752 (96,8%) were on holiday compared to 19 620 (1,9%) and 14 162 (1,4%) who came for business and for study purposes respectively. Tourists were made up of 585 075 (56,2%) males and 455 459 (43,8%) females.