July Tourist Arrivals to South Africa up 5.8 Percent

Statistics show European tourists make up 59 percent of total visitors to South Africa

The total number of travellers who visited South Africa during July 2009 has increased by 5.8 percent year-on-year. According to Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) data, released on Monday 28 September 2009, visitors have increased to 2 442 million from the 2 309 million recorded in July 2008.

A month-on-month increase of 21.9 percent was recorded from June 2009. The number of foreign travellers who departed from South Africa in July 2009 was 729 231, an increase of 6.4 percent from the 685 107 recorded in July 2008.

The number of foreign arrivals is up 5.2 percent to 879 884 from 836 554 in July 2008. A total of 386 629 South African residents departed from South Africa in July 2009, an increase of 8.2 percent from the 357 821 recorded in July 2008.

In July 2009, overseas tourists came mainly from Europe, 92 466 (59.0 percent); followed by North America, 28 951 (18.5 percent); Asia, 15 704 (10.0 percent); Australasia, 9 464 (6.0 percent); Central and South America, 5 699 (3.6 percent); and Middle East, 4 562 (2.9 percent).

Data revealed that the United Kingdom, United States, The Netherlands, Germany, France, Australia, Italy and India were the eight leading overseas source countries for visitors to South Africa.

Tourists from these eight countries constitute 67.9 percent of all tourists from overseas countries. In July 2009, an overwhelming 95.5 percent of tourists were in South Africa on holiday.

This is a large difference compared with the 2.8 percent who have come to study and the 1.4 percent who come on business.

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