9 December 2009
KwaZulu-Natal has come out tops as South Africa’s most visited province in Statistics SA’s latest domestic tourism survey. The province generated 20.6% of all tourist trips by locals in 2008, and 22.7% of overnight trips.
When it came to day trips, however, Gauteng province led the pack with 24.4% of trips in 2008, Stats SA said on Monday.
According to the survey, South Africans made an estimated 7.46-million domestic trips in 2008, of which 2.25-million were day trips and 5.21-million were overnight trips.
The main reasons for both day and overnight trips were visits to friends and family or relatives. Most overnight trips lasted between one and three nights.
Transport
The most frequently used forms of transport were taxis, coming in at 8.86-million trips, and cars at 7.53-million trips.
People aged 25-29 were those most likely to travel, while the two most preferred destinations for overnight leisure trips were the Western Cape (47.9%) and Mpumalanga (21%).
Spending
According to Stats SA, expenditure on day trips totalled R187.6-million in the Western Cape in 2008, and R1.39-billion for overnight trips. In KwaZulu-Natal, day trip expenditure was R731.3-million, and overnight trip expenditure R2.22-billion – approximately three times more than that for day trips.
Eating out at restaurants and cafes was very popular for both day and overnight trips. According to the survey, an estimated 1.52-million South Africans ate at restaurants and cafes on day trips, while 1.59-million people ate at restaurants while on overnight trips.
African travel
When traveling outside the country, the survey found, South Africans were more likely to travel on the African continent as opposed to further abroad.
Mozambique was the top African destination for locals in 2008, with an estimated 141 000 trips, while the UK was the most popular foreign destination.
Source: BuaNews
