IMPROVING LIVES THROUGH DATA ECOSYSTEMS

In August 2018, 3 554 656 travellers (arrivals, departures and transits) passed through South Africa’s ports of entry. They were made up of 957 130 South African residents and 2 597 526 foreign travellers.

Foreign arrivals, 1 331 118 were made up of 79 106 non-visitors and 1 252 012 visitors.

The visitors were broken down as follows:

•  375 086 who arrived and departed on the same day, and
• 876 926 who stayed overnight (tourists).

             Tourists increased by 2,9% from 852 339 in August 2017.

They were constituted as follows:

• Overseas tourists (213 761), who increased by 0,2% from 213 294 in August 2017.
  o The highest increase, 13,3% was for tourists from Spain (from 6 177 in August 2017 to 7 000 in August 2018), followed by Italy, 5,7% (from 11 410 in August 2017 to 12 060 in August 2018).
• Tourists from SADC (645 837), who increased by 3,7% from 623 031 in August 2017.
  o The highest increase, 52,7% was for tourists from Angola (from 3 816 in August 2017 to 5 827 in August 2018), followed by DRC, 29,8% (from 3 458 in August 2017 to 4 488 in August 2018).
• Tourists from 'other' African countries (16 221), who increased by 8,4% from 14 969 in August 2017.
  o The highest increase, 23,7% was for tourists from Ghana (from 1 515 in August 2017 to 1 874 in August 2018) , followed by Cameroon, 22,1% (from 376 in August 2017 to 459 in August 2018).
• 1 107 tourists, whose country of origin were unspecified.
  

About 631 545 (72,0%) of tourists used road transport and 245 376 (28,0%) used air transport, while a smaller number, 5 ( less than 0,1%) used sea transport.
The majority of tourists, 853 174 (97,3%) were on holiday compared to 18 369 (2,1%); 4 880 (0,6%) and 503 (0,1%) who were in South Africa for business, study purposes and for medical treatment respectively. Tourists were made up of 475 239 (54,2%) males and 401 687 (45,8%) females.