IMPROVING LIVES THROUGH DATA ECOSYSTEMS

In February 2019, 3 039 744 travellers (arrivals, departures, and transits) passed through South Africa's ports of entry. They were made up of 731 074 South African residents and 2 308 670 foreign travellers.

Foreign arrivals, 1 205 901 were made up of 73 338 non-visitors and 1 132 563 visitors.

The visitors were broken down as follows:

• 335 382 who arrived and departed on the same day, and
• 797 181 who stayed overnight (tourists).

Tourists dropped by 0,6% from 802 252 in February 2018. The tourists were constituted as follows:

• Overseas tourists (246 394), who decreased by 4,9% from 259 123 in February 2018. All top ten countries dropped from February 2018 to February 2019
• The highest decrease, 12,3% was for tourists from India (who decreased from 7 544 in February 2018 to 6 619 in February 2019), followed closely by those from China, who decreased by 10,7% (from 11 145 in February 2018 to 9 948 in February 2019).
• Tourists from SADC (534 866), who increased by 1,4% from 527 483 in February 2018.
• The highest increase, 12,1% was for tourists from Zimbabwe (who increased from 145 096 in February 2018 to 162 604 in February 2019), followed by those from Mozambique and Tanzania, who increased by 6,7% (from 99 773 in February 2018 to 106 481 in February 2019) and (from 2 772 in February 2018 to 2 958 in February 2019) respectively.
• Tourists from ''other'' African countries (14 579), who decreased by 0,3% from 14 622 in February 2018. Despite the overall decrease, tourism for specific countries increased.
• The highest increase, 36,9% was for tourists from Cote d'Ivoire (who increased from 241 in February 2018 to 330 in February 2019) , followed by those from Ghana, who increased by 19,7% (from 1 502 in February 2018 to 1 798 in February 2019).
• 1 342 tourists, whose country of origin were unspecified.

The majority of tourists, 512 322 (64,3%) used road transport and 284 482 (35,7%) used air transport, while a smaller number, 377 (0,05%) used sea transport.

The majority of tourists, 769 894 (96,6%) were on holiday compared to 20 404 (2,6%); 6 341 (0,8%) and 542 (0,1%) who were in South Africa for business, study purposes and for medical treatment respectively. Tourists were made up of 448 900 (56,3%) males and 348 281(43,7%) females.