IMPROVING LIVES THROUGH DATA ECOSYSTEMS

In March 2018, 3 560 384 travellers (arrivals, departures and transits) passed through South Africa's ports of entry. They were made up of 949 362 South African residents and 2 611 022 foreign travellers.

Foreign arrivals, 1 317 875 were made up of 74 481 non-visitors and 1 243 394 visitors.

The visitors were broken down as follows:

• 360 645 who arrived and departed on the same day, and
• 882 749 who stayed overnight (tourists).

Tourists increased by 9,5% from 805 857 in March 2017.

They were constituted as follows:

• Overseas tourists (260 514), who increased by 4,4% from 249 641 in March 2017.
  o The highest increase, 13,2% was for tourists from Germany (from 37 759 March 2017 to 42 756 in March 2018), followed by Australia, 12,3% (from 8 860 in March 2017 to 9 949 in March 2018).
• Tourists from SADC (606 898), who increased by 12,2% from 540 687 in March 2017.
  o The highest increase, 61,6% was for tourists from Botswana (from 49 152 in March 2017 to 79 447 in March 2018), followed by Angola, 35,4% (from 4 007 in March 2017 to 5 427 in March 2018).
• Tourists from 'other' African countries (14 165), who decreased by 2,5% from 14 526 in March 2017.
  o The highest increase, 17,9% was for tourists from Cameroon (from 379 in March 2017 to 447 in March 2018) , followed by Ghana, 15,3% (from 1 527 in March 2017 to 1 760 in March 2018).
• 1 172 tourists, whose country of origin were unspecified.

About 589 485 (66,8%) of tourists used road transport and 291 592 (33,0%) used air transport, while a smaller number, 1 672 (0,2%) used sea transport.

The majority of tourists, 857 543 (97,1%) were on holiday compared to 20 555 (2,3%); 4 049 (0,5%) and 602 (0,1%) who were in South Africa for business, study and for other purposes respectively. Tourists were made up of 486 350 (55,1%) males and 396 399 (44,9%) females.