A survey of domestic tourism undertaken by Statistics SA has found a general pattern of decline over the past two years as consumers struggled to keep their heads above water.
South African Tourism has also highlighted the low level of domestic tourism in the country and has launched several initiatives in a bid to boost it.
Tourism has been identified in the National Development Plan as a key driver of growth.
The economic stagnation has led to consumers reprioritising their spending away from taking day and overnight trips, statistician-general Pali Lehohla said in his introduction to the survey on Monday.
This was a large-scale household survey aimed at collecting statistics on the behaviour and expenditure of South African residents travelling within the country.
Such information was crucial, Lehohla said, to determine the contribution of tourism to the economy, as well as to help with planning, marketing, policy formulation and regulation of tourism-related activities.
The survey found that the number of day trips decreased from 44.3-million in 2015, to 39.4-million in 2016; while the number of overnight trips declined from 45.4-million in 2015, to 43-million in 2016.
The main reason for people not taking overnight trips in both years was financial and also because a large number of respondents said their family and friends lived within 40km.
Total expenditure on domestic overnight trips increased from R62bn in 2015 to R63bn in 2016; while spending on day trips declined from R25bn in 2015, to R23bn in 2016.
All categories of expenses in both overnight trips and day trips showed an increase in the two periods. The only exception was money spent on domestic transport and shopping during day trips. Expenditure on these declined by R739m and R282m, respectively. Both years recorded about R8bn spent on shopping during day trips.
Business Day TV talks to Mmatšatši Ramawela, CEO of the Tourism Business Council of South Africa, about the impact of falling domestic tourist on the economy
"The increase in expenditure between 2015 and 2016 on overnight trips has largely been driven by increased spending in the higher living standard measure subgroup [LSM 8–10], as individuals and households from the lower living standard measure groupings were significantly less likely to travel in 2016 than in 2015," he said.
"Most of the money spent during the most recent day trips was spent in Gauteng, whereas most overnight expenditure occurred in KwaZulu-Natal."
In 2015 and 2016, Gauteng, Limpopo and the Western Cape were the most popular destinations for day travellers, whereas those who undertook overnight trips mostly visited Limpopo. In 2015, the second-most visited province by tourists was the Eastern Cape followed by KwaZulu-Natal. A different trend was evident in 2016, when Gauteng was the second-most common province visited by tourists followed by KwaZulu-Natal.
A visit to friends and relatives was the most popular reason for overnight trips, as about 12-million trips were undertaken for this reason in 2016. Recent day trips were undertaken mainly for shopping purposes.
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