The tourism sector: economic importance, employment and expenditure. These are the three themes covered by a recent report examining the pre-pandemic (2019) status of the South African tourism sector. These data will provide an important benchmark for when comparable COVID-19-era data (2020) become available. The Tourism Satellite Account (TSA) for South Africa report, released annually,   read more »

According to the Tourism, 2020 report released by Statistics South Africa, foreign arrivals dropped by 71% from just over 15, 8million in 2019 to less than 5 million in 2020. It is evident that the COVID-19 pandemic impacted the tourism industry quite hard around the world and in South Africa, mainly due to the lockdown   read more »

The land under our feet is, in several senses, living. Alive in terms of the organisms that support healthy soils to cultivate crops. Active in terms of abiotic (non-living) and biotic (living) factors that interact with each other to create distinct ecological systems. Malleable in terms of the changes that humans bring about. Digital snapshots   read more »

Travel is a necessity South Africans travel from their homes to places of work, education, healthcare, for business, for leisure and social activities daily. Travel is a necessity. The increase in urbanisation and population numbers changes the demand for urban infrastructure and transport services. But, how can we know and understand transport needs and behaviour   read more »

South Africa enjoys a positive tourism trade balance with the rest of the world. What this means is that non-resident visitors spend more money in our country than South African travellers spend abroad. However, the trade balance surplus has narrowed since 2016. In 2018, non-resident visitors1 (which includes both tourists and same-day visitors) spent a   read more »

Fancy a meal out, or would you rather save up for accommodation when on holiday? We take a peek into the spending habits of domestic and international visitors who criss-cross the South African landscape. Visitors1 spent just over half a million rand every minute during the course of 2017! That amounts to R277 billion for the   read more »

When Stats SA published data in 2018 showing that one in every 22 working South Africans are employed in the tourism sector, it also provided additional tables showing how the tourism workforce is structured. For the inquiring mind, these lesser-known tables on employment appear in the second half of the latest Tourism Satellite Account for   read more »

With concerns over job losses in major industries, the tourism sector has shown some resilience in the face of a tough economic climate. In 2017, the sector had its most successful year of job creation in recent times. The tourism sector created 31 752 net new jobs in 2017.1 This is the most number of net   read more »

At the 2018 International Travel Trade Show in Germany held in March 2018, South African Tourism CEO Sisa Ntshona was quoted as stating that tourism is vitally important to the South African economy, and that the sector should be nurtured for sustained and inclusive growth. Recent data from Stats SA show how important tourism actually   read more »

MEDIA INVITE                                                                               22 March 2018 Stats SA  to release the Tourism satellite account (TSA) report The Statistician-General of South Africa, Risenga Maluleke, will release the Tourism satellite report (TSA) at a media briefing to be held on Monday, 26 March 2018 in Pretoria. The TSA report provides an overview of the role that tourism plays   read more »