IMPROVING LIVES THROUGH DATA ECOSYSTEMS

In January 2018, 3 917 911 travellers (arrivals, departures and transits) passed through South Africa's ports of entry. They were made up of 1 055 268 South African residents and 2 862 643 foreign travellers.

Foreign arrivals, 1 598 893 were made up of 95 904 non-visitors and 1 502 989 visitors.

The visitors were broken down as follows:

• 399 049 who arrived and departed on the same day, and
• 1 103 940 who stayed overnight (tourists).

Tourists increased by 6,1% from 1 040 534 in January 2017.

They were constituted as follows:

• Overseas tourists (244 657), who decreased by 0,2% from 245 074 in January 2017.
• The highest increase, 23,6% was for tourists from Brazil (from 6 114 January 2017 to 7 558 in January 2018), followed by India, 13,1% (from 6 293 in January 2017 to 7 115 in January 2018).
• Tourists from SADC (845 163), who increased by 8,3% from 780 275 in January 2017.
• The highest increase, 51,7% was for tourists from Angola (from 5 720 in January 2017 to 8 680 in January 2018), followed by Malawi, 14,2% (from 14 856 in January 2017 to 16 961 in January 2018).
• Tourists from 'other' African countries (13 342), who decreased by 7,4% from 14 402 in January 2017.
• The highest increase, 34,0% was for tourists from Egypt (from 701 in January 2017 to 939 in January 2018) , followed by Ethiopia, 13,5% (from 584 in January 2017 to 663 in January 2018).
• 778 tourists, whose country of origin were unspecified.

About three quarter, 823 872 (74,6%) of tourists used road transport and about one quarter, 276 404 (25,0%) used air transport, while a smaller number, 3 664 (0,3%) used sea transport. The majority of tourists, 1 068 229 (96,8%) were on holiday compared to 21 115 (1,9%); 13 994 (1,3%) and 602 (0,1%) who were in South Africa for business, study and for other purposes respectively. Tourists were made up of 620 644 (56,2%) males and 483 296 (43,8%) females.