IMPROVING LIVES THROUGH DATA ECOSYSTEMS

In August 2017, 3 466 363 travellers (arrivals, departures and transits) passed through South Africa's ports of entry. They were made up of 913 087 South African residents and 2 553 276 foreign travellers.

Foreign arrivals, 1 302 312 were made up of 82 126 non-visitors and 1 220 186 visitors.

The visitors were broken down as follows:

• 367 847 who arrived and departed on the same day, and
• 852 339 who stayed overnight (tourists).

They were constituted as follows:

• Overseas tourists (213 294), who increased by 4,9% from 203 421 in August 2016.
• The highest increase, 23,1% was for tourists from France (from 12 693 in August 2016 to 15 630 in August 2017), followed by Australia, 13,0% (from 9 518 in August 2016 to 10 754 in August 2017).

• Tourists from SADC (623 031), who increased by 1,8% from 611 877 in August 2016.

• The highest increase, 20,7% was for tourists from Malawi (from 14 410 in August 2016 to 17 395 in August 2017), followed by Mozambique, 18,0% (from 98 537 in August 2016 to 116 232 in August 2017).

• Tourists from 'other' African countries (14 969), who decreased by 14,3% from 17 471 in August 2016.
• The highest increase, 6,0% was for tourists from Uganda (from 980 in August 2016 to 1 039 in August 2017) , followed by Ghana, 3,6% (from 1 462 in August 2016 to 1 515 in August 2017).
• 1 045 tourists, whose country of origin were unspecified.

About three quarters, 614 955 (72,1%) of tourists used road transport and about one quarter, 237 287 (27,8%) used air transport, while a smaller number, 97 (less than 0,1%) used sea transport. The majority of tourists, 825 015 (96,8%) were on holiday compared to 20 850 (2,4%) and 6 474 (0,8%) who came for business and for study purposes respectively. Tourists were made up of 466 872 (54,8%) males and 385 467 (45,2%) females.