IMPROVING LIVES THROUGH DATA ECOSYSTEMS

The total number of foreign travellers who visited South Africa from Africa, overseas and unspecified countries, arriving through all ports of entry during 2017 was 15 990 598. Foreign arrivals, 15 990 598 were made up of 1 014 923 non-visitors and 14 975 675 visitors.

The visitors were broken down as follows:

• 4 690 478 who arrived and departed on the same day, and
• 10 285 197 who stayed overnight (tourists).

They were constituted as follows:

• Overseas tourists (2 713 133), who increased by 7,2% from 2 531 046 in 2016.
• The highest increase, 27,2% was for tourists from France (from 154 226 in 2016 to 196 165 in 2017), followed by Germany, 12,0% (from 311 832 in 2016 to 349 211 in 2017) and Canada, 10,8% (from 61 179 in 2016 to 67 797 in 2017).
• Tourists from SADC (7 386 959), who increased by 1,0% from 7 313 684 in 2016.
• The highest increase, 13,6% was for tourists from Malawi (from 154 017 in 2016 to 175 014 in 2017), followed by Angola, 13,1% (from 43 608 in 2016 to 49 299 in 2017).
• Tourists from 'other' African countries (172 383), who decreased by 8,2% from 187 828 in 2016.
• The highest decrease, 76,0% was for tourists from Senegal (from 10 880 in 2016 to 2 609 in 2017, followed by Nigeria, 22,4% (from 65 599 in 2016 to 50 921 in 2017).
• 11 605 tourists, whose country of origin were unspecified.

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

• 5 711 075 were males, 4 574 122 were females;
• 542 518 were less than 15 years, 9 166 894 were aged 15-64, 575 785 were aged 65+.

During 2017, 3 060 339 tourists arrived through air, 7 215 719 used road transport and 9 139 used sea transport The majority of tourists, 9 951 424 (96,8%) were on holiday compared to 254 653 (2,5%) and 79 120 (0,8%) who came for business and for study purposes respectively.