Tourism numbers have taken a hit over a five-year period, with the number of people who have visited South Africa last month having decreased by over 25%. This is as festive season is in full swing.
Stats SA report
This was revealed by a Tourism and Migration report for November 2023, released by Statistics SA on Tuesday.
The report also showed that most tourists were in the country to enjoy the holidays. A fraction of tourists from the Southern African Development Community (Sadec) countries came to South Africa for medical reasons.
Sunday World compared the 2023 figures to those in the November 2018 report, showing a dramatic decrease in tourism numbers.
Decline over five-year period
While in November 2023 there were 2, 582 023 (arrivals, departures and transits) travellers who entered and exited South Africa, in November 2018 there were 3, 504 147 travellers. This is a 26% decline over the five-year period.
According to the 2023 report, the travellers were made up of 25,1% South African residents and 74.9% foreign travelers.
“Foreign arrivals, 1, 015 584 were made up of 2.6% non-visitors and 97.4% visitors. Of the visitors, 988 868 consisted of 26% same-day visitors and 74% overnight visitors (tourists),” read the report.
Breakdown per country
It said overseas tourists were 26,7% of all tourists, with visitors mainly from the UK, Germany and the US contributing 46.2% to overseas tourists.
A large part of the tourists came from the Sadec countries, clocking 71,1% (520 322) of all tourists.
“Zimbabwe (170 082), Mozambique (119 328) and Lesotho (83 982) contributed 71,8% to Sadc tourists. Other African countries (non-Sadc) tourists were 2% (14 647) of all tourists. Kenya, Ghana and Nigeria contributed 61.9% to “other” African tourists.
The number of tourists who were in South Africa for holiday purposes declined to 96.3% from 96.6% during the same period five years ago.
The figures also show that Asia had the highest proportion of tourists who came to South Africa for business, followed by the Middle East, Central and South America, North America, Europe, and Australasia.
Australasia came in large numbers
However, the opposite was true when it came to holidaying, with Australasia having the highest proportion of tourists who came for holidays.
Australasia was followed by Europe, North America, Central and South America, the Middle East and Asia.
“The majority of African tourists, 96.1% came to South Africa for holiday,” read the report.
Most of the tourists preferred travelling by road, with 65.6% of the travelers using road travel.
