Drop in non-African foreign travellers in January 2020

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.

MMP