IMPROVING LIVES THROUGH DATA ECOSYSTEMS

In April 2018, 3 582 842 travellers (arrivals, departures and transits) passed through South Africa's ports of entry. They were made up of 1 027 709 South African residents and 2 555 133 foreign travellers.

Foreign arrivals, 1 298 709 were made up of 78 393 non-visitors and 1 220 316 visitors.

The visitors were broken down as follows:

• 353 422 who arrived and departed on the same day, and
• 866 894 who stayed overnight (tourists).

They were constituted as follows:

• Overseas tourists (194 017), who decreased by 12,6% from 222 055 in April 2017.
• The highest increase, 16,3% was for tourists from Brazil (from 4 511 in April 2017 to 5 247 in April 2018), followed by China, 1,8% (from 7 151 in April 2017 to 7 280 in April 2018).
• Tourists from SADC (657 020), who decreased by 3,5% from 680 918 in April 2017.
• The highest increase, 35,1% was for tourists from Angola (from 3 590 in April 2017 to 4 849 in April 2018), followed by Malawi, 14,9% (from 12 857 in April 2017 to 14 774 in April 2018).
• Tourists from 'other' African countries (14 814), who decreased by 1,6% from 15 052 in April 2017.
• The highest increase, 23,3% was for tourists from Ghana (from 1 480 in April 2017 to 1 825 in April 2018) , followed by Ethiopia, 15,2% (from 627 in April 2017 to 722 in April 2018).
• 1 043 tourists, whose country of origin were unspecified.

About 633 934 (73,1%) of tourists used road transport and 230 100 (26,5%) used air transport, while a smaller number, 2 860 (0,3%)used sea transport.

The majority of tourists, 841 588 (97,1%) were on holiday compared to 17 546 (2,0%); 7 202 (0,8%) and 558 (0,1%) who were in South Africa for business, study purposes and for medical treatment respectively. Tourists were made up of 478 428 (55,2%) males and 388 466 (44,8%) females.