Tourism has the potential to make a significant contribution to the South African economy and it is targeted by government as one of the industries for future economic growth in the country. Tourism therefore is regarded as a potential sector where large-scale employment opportunities can be created. The National Development Plan 2030 also emphasises this point. This particular publication focuses on domestic tourism and includes information on day and overnight trips.

Findings of the Domestic Tourism Survey (DTS) 2020 reflect the total number of day and overnight trips taken during the 12-month period (from January to December 2019 and January to December 2020). About 83,0 million day trips and 69,0 million overnight trips were undertaken in 2019. Furthermore, the results indicate that there were 12,4 million day trips and 7,5 million overnight trips taken within South Africa during the 12-month period (from January to December 2020).

Total expenditure on domestic trips incurred in 2019 was approximately R204 billion. This constitutes day trip spending of about R125,2 billion, while spending on overnight trips amounted to R78,9 billion. On the other hand, overnight expenditure was mostly driven by high expenditure on domestic transport (R25,2 billion), followed by shopping (R19,6 billion), food and beverages (R14,9 billion) and accommodation (R13,9 billion).

On the other hand, total expenditure on domestic trips for the year 2020 was approximately R23 billion. This was made up of day trip spending of about R12,1 billion and spending of overnight trips that amounted to R10,5 billion. Overnight expenditure was mostly driven by high expenditure on shopping (R3,1 billion), followed by domestic transport (R3,1 billion) and food and beverages (R2,1 billion). Recreation and culture spending was the least for both day and overnight trips in both years.

In 2019, the main destination for day travellers was Gauteng (22,4%), followed by Limpopo (19,0%) and Western Cape (13,6%). In 2020, the main destination for day travellers was Limpopo (24,5%), followed by Eastern Cape (15,8%) and Western Cape at 13,2%. In 2020, the results show that when looking at the overnight trips, the most visited province was Eastern Cape (18,2%), followed by Limpopo at 18,0%.

In 2019, the most prevalent reason provided for not taking day and overnight trips was financial reasons. In 2020, the most prevalent reasons given for not taking day and overnight trips were Lockdown due to COVID-19 pandemic and financial reasons, as well as no reason to undertake a trip.

In 2020, results further show that most day travellers who used buses, used them mainly for shopping purposes (78,0%). Most of the day travellers who used cars made use of this mode of transport mainly for visiting friends and relatives (15,9%), sporting (21,1%) and shopping purposes (34,4%). In 2020, most tourists used taxis to visit friends and relatives (72,9%) and for medical or health purposes (18,8%). Cars were used largely by tourists who visited friends and relatives (54,8%), for leisure (22,6%) and medical or health purposes (11,7%).