Travel decreased during June-July period -Here are the stats

Road travel was the preferred mode of transport for the June-July holiday period, according to the latest StatSA report on tourism.

Both local and international travel by road increased while the country moved between lockdown levels three and four.

More than 600,000 travellers passed through South Africa’s ports of entry/exit.

At least 221,704 of them were South Africans, while 430,633 were foreigners.

The breakdown of the tourists by region is as follows:

• Overseas – 22,877
• SADC countries -125,380
• Greater African continent – 2,732
• ‘Unspecified’ – 275

The volume of arrivals and departures decreased for South African residents and foreign travellers between June and July 2021.

The country moved to lockdown level three in mid-June and to level four by the end of June.

Foreign travellers arrivals decreased by 14,4%, and departures dropped by 13,0%.

More than 70% of people chose to travel via road in July while some 27% took to the skies. Only 0.9% used sea transport in and out of South Africa.

At least 33% of locals returning home came in through the country’s airports, while a little over 68% opted for road trips.

Over 34% of locals left the country using air transport, and more than 65% used road transport.

More than 45,000 international travellers arrived by airplane, while 168,957 drove into the country. At least 3,000 arrived via sea.

There was a slight increase in air travel for visitors leaving South Africa. More than 50,000 chose to fly out, and 148,626 left by road, while 2,879 left by sea.

July overseas tourist breakdown

• Europe – 9,028 (39,5%)
• North America – 8,917 (39,0%)
• Asia – 2,888 (12,6%)
• The Middle East – 1,148 (5,0%)
• Central and South America – 642 (2,8%)
• Australasia – 254 (1,1%)

The ten leading overseas tourists visiting South Africa in July 2021:

1. USA – 8,445
2. UK – 1,489
3. India -1,241
4. Germany – 1,204
5. The Netherlands – 1,076
6. France – 861
7. Spain – 636
8. Saudi Arabia – 602
9. Switzerland – 503
10. Belgium – 489

Tourists from these ten countries constituted 72,3 % of all tourists from overseas countries.

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(Compiled by Narissa Subramoney)