IMPROVING LIVES THROUGH DATA ECOSYSTEMS

In October 2017, 3 554 063 travellers (arrivals, departures and transits) passed through South Africa's ports of entry. They were made up of 938 061 South African residents and 2 616 002 foreign travellers.

Foreign arrivals, 1 351 940 were made up of 88 807 non-visitors and 1 263 133 visitors.
The visitors were broken down as follows: 

• 382 965 who arrived and departed on the same day, and
• 880 168 who stayed overnight (tourists).

 
Tourists increased by 3,4% from 850 956 in October 2016..

They were constituted as follows:

• Overseas tourists (267 025), who increased by 6,5% from 250 737 in October 2016.
• The highest increase, 32,7% was for tourists from France (from 19 009 October 2016 to 25 221 in October 2017), followed by Canada, 19,1% (from 5 835 in October 2016 to 6 949 in October 2017).
• Tourists from SADC (597 424), who increased by 2,6% from 582 324 in October 2016.
•  The highest increase, 12,2% was for tourists from Mozambique (from 97 978 in October 2016 to 109 904 in October2017), followed by Malawi, 10,7% (from 14 829 in October 2016 to 16 415 in October 2017).
  
• Tourists from 'other' African countries (14 411), who decreased by 14,5% from 16 856 in October 2016.
• The highest increase, 18,6% was for tourists from Senegal (from 253 in October 2016 to 300 in October 2017) , followed by Ethiopia 5,8% (from 763 in October 2016 to 807 in October 2017).
• 1 308 tourists, whose country of origin were unspecified.

About two third591 138 (67,2%) of tourists used road transport and about one third, 288 398 (32,8%) used air transport, while a smaller number, 632 (0,1%) used sea transport.

The majority of tourists, 849 278 (96,5%) were on holiday compared to 24 786 (2,8%) and 6 104 (0,7%) who came for business and for study purposes respectively. Tourists were made up of 488 988 (55,6%) males and 391 170 (44,4%) females.