According to the latest figures by Statistics South Africa, January saw a decrease in the number of foreign travellers, excluding those from African countries, with a total of 227 370 compared with December 2019’s total of 242 281.
When including African countries, the data provided by the national statistics authority highlights a growth of both South African and foreign traveller arrivals in January 2020, by 2.7% and 2.3% respectively compared with the previous month.
The majority of African travellers in January – 837 035 – came from SADC countries, with Zimbabwe leading with the most travellers at 291 982.
Holidays remain the popular reason for visits, with 97.3% of the total number of tourists coming to South Africa for this reason. This is a marginal decrease from December 2019’s 98.6% of the total number of tourists visiting the country for holidays.
The number of foreign tourists coming to South Africa for the purpose of business increased slightly from 10 633 in December 2019 to 17 893 in January 2020.
When comparing January 2020 with the same month the year before, the volume of arrivals and departures for foreign travellers increased by 2.2% and 2% respectively.
