IMPROVING LIVES THROUGH DATA ECOSYSTEMS

In February 2017, 2 947 189 travellers (arrivals, departures and transits) passed through South Africa's ports of entry. They were made up of 668 878 South African residents and 2 278 311 foreign travellers.
Foreign arrivals, 1 180 301 were made up of 73 911 non-visitors and 1 106 390 visitors.

The visitors were broken down as follows:

• 330 566 who arrived and departed on the same day, and
• 775 824 who stayed overnight (tourists).

Tourists decreased by 3,5% from 803 770 in February 2016.

They were constituted as follows:

• Overseas tourists (255 901), who increased by 9,0% from 234 707 in February 2016.
  o The highest increase, 33,6% was for tourists from France (from 14 463 in February 2016 to 19 318 in February 2017), followed by Sweden, 24,6% (from 6 003 in February 2016 to 7 480 in February 2017).

• Tourists from SADC (503 261), who decreased by 9,0% from 553 013 in February 2016.
  o The highest increase, 12,9% was for tourists from Malawi (from 10 837 in February 2016 to 12 240 in February 2017), followed by Angola, 11,3% (from 4 006 in February 2016 to 4 459 in February 2017).

• Tourists from 'other' African countries (15 676), who increased by 3,5% from 15 149 in February 2016.
  o The highest increase, 56,6% was for tourists from Uganda (from 851 in February 2016 to 1 333 in February 2017, followed by Kenya, 31,2% (from 2 301 in February 2016 to 3 019 in February 2017).

• 986 tourists, whose country of origin were unspecified.
  

About two thirds, 488 989 (63,0%) of tourists used road transport and about two fifths, 286 706 (37,0%) used air transport, while a much smaller number, 129 (0,02%) used sea transport.

The majority of tourists, 745 066 (96,0%) were on holiday compared to 22 776 (2,9%) and 7 982 (1,0%) who came for business and for study purposes respectively. Tourists were made up of 440 958 (56,8%) males and 334 866 (43,2%) females.