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Key findings: P0351 - Tourism and Migration, January 2019

In January 2019, 3 818 462 travellers (arrivals, departures and transits) passed through South Africa’s ports of entry. They were made up of 1 032 021 South African residents and 2 786 441 foreign travellers.

Foreign arrivals, 1 561 510 were made up of 109 988 non-visitors and 1 451 522 visitors.

The visitors were broken down as follows:

  • 383 332 who arrived and departed on the same day, and
  • 1 068 190 who stayed overnight (tourists).

Tourists dropped by 3,2% from 1 103 940 in January 2018.

The tourists were constituted as follows:

  • Overseas tourists (232 872), who decreased by 4,8% from 244 657 in January 2018. Despite the overall decrease, tourism for specific countries increased.
    • The highest increase, 22,4% was for tourists from China (who increased from 6 506 in January 2018 to 7 962 in January 2019), followed by those from USA, who increased by 3,2% (from 23 454 in January 2018 to 24 193 in January 2019).

 

  • Tourists from SADC (819 895), who increased by 3,0% from 845 163 in January 2018.
    • The highest increase, 7,3% was for tourists from Tanzania (who increased from 2 815 in January 2018 to 3 021 in January 2019), followed by those from Zimbabwe, who increased by 6,3% (from 274 008 in January 2018 to 291 293 in January 2019).

 

  • Tourists from 'other' African countries (14 506), who increased by 8,7% from 13 342 in January 2018.
    • The highest increase, 246,5% was for tourists from Algeria (who increased from 71 in January 2018 to 246 in January 2019) , followed by those from Ghana, who increased by 23,4% (from 1 252 in January 2018 to 1 545 in January 2019).
  • 917 tourists, whose country of origin were unspecified.

The majority of tourists, 793 850 (74,3%) used road transport and 270 105 (25,3%) used air transport, while a smaller number, 4 235 (0,4%) used sea transport.

The majority of tourists, 1 036 173 (97,0%) were on holiday[1] compared to 18 845 (1,8%); 12 604 (1,2%) and 568 (0,1%) who were in South Africa for business, study purposes and for medical treatment respectively. Tourists were made up of 601 691 (56,3%) males and 466 499 (43,7%) females.

 

[1] The holiday category includes tourists who came for vacation, visiting friends and relatives, shopping and other personal reasons.

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