The total number of foreign travellers who visited South Africa from Africa, overseas and unspecified countries, arriving through all ports of entry during 2016 was 16 158 419. Foreign arrivals, 16 158 419 were made up of 1 037 0913 non-visitors and 15 121 328 visitors.

The visitors were broken down as follows:

• 5 077 165 who arrived and departed on the same day, and
• 10 044 163 who stayed overnight (tourists).

• Overseas tourists (2 531 046), who increased by 18,0% from 2 144 988 in 2015.
  • The highest increase, 38,1% was for tourists from China (from 84 691 in 2015 to 116 946 in 2016), followed by India, 21,7% (from 78 385 in 2015 to 95 377 in 2016) and Germany, 21,5% (from 256 646 in 2015 to 311 832 in 2016).
• Tourists from SADC (7 313 684), who increased by 11,2% from 6 575 244 in 2016.
  • The highest increase, 26,0% was for tourists from Lesotho (from 1 394 913 in 2015 to 1 757 058 in 2016), followed by Botswana, 14,5% (from 593 514 in 2015 to 679 828 in 2016).
• Tourists from 'other' African countries (187 828), who increased by 9,9% from 170 870 in 2016.
  • The highest increase, 20,8% was for tourists from Gabon (from 7 730 in 2015 to 9 340 in 2016, followed by Egypt, 20,5% (from 7 210 in 2015 to 8 688 in 2016).
• 11 605 tourists, whose country of origin were unspecified.

The breakdown of tourists by sex and age is as follows:

• 5 560 027 were males, 4 484 136 were females; 541 930 were less than 15 years, 8 983 527 were aged 15-64, 518 706 were aged 65+.

During 2016, 2 893 268 tourists arrived through air, 7 139 580 used road transport and 11 315 used sea transport

The majority of tourists, 9 706 602 (96,6%) were on holiday compared to 255 932 (2,5%) and 81 629 (0,8%) who came for business and for study purposes respectively.