KwaZulu-Natal was the province tourists visited the most, according to the results of a Statistics SA's Domestic Tourism Survey 2008 released on Monday. KwaZulu-Natal generated 20.6 percent of all tourist arrivals, Statistics SA said.

The province also had the highest proportion of overnight trips (22.7 percent), the Pretoria-based agency said. Gauteng was the most visited province on day trips (24.4 percent), Statistics SA said

Visiting friends and family/relatives was the main reason given for taking domestic day and overnight trips - meaning trips outside the respondents' usual environment where one night or more was spent away from the household - in the six months prior to the survey.

An estimated 7,469 million trips were taken for this reason of which 2,252 million were day trips and 5.217 million were overnight trips.

The two most frequently used modes of transport for domestic tourism were taxis and cars. Taxis were used as mode of transport in 8,860 million trips and cars in 7,532 million trips. Statistics SA said taxis were mostly used as the mode of transport to visit friends and family/relatives (27.6 percent) and to do shopping for personal use (28.3 percent). Taxis were the mode of transport for more than half the trips when the provinces of destination were Eastern Cape (53.4 percent) and KwaZulu-Natal (51.0 percent).

Eating out at restaurants and cafes was a very popular activity on both day and overnight trips.
"An estimated 1,528 million people ate at restaurants and cafes on day trips, while 1,591 million people ate at restaurants whilst on overnight trips," Statistics SA said. The age group most likely to travel was the 25-29 year age group.

An estimated 1,252 million overnight trips and 929,000 day trips were taken by this group.
The two preferred destinations on overnight trips for leisure or holiday purposes were the Western Cape, with 47.9 percent trips,  and Mpumalanga (21.0 percent).

Most overnight trips lasted between one and three nights.

In 67.3 percent of trips taken to Mpumalanga, the trips lasted between one and three nights, and when the province of destination was KwaZulu-Natal, 59.6 percent of the trips lasted between one and three nights.

When people went on overnight trips to the Eastern Cape (84.7 percent) the principal type of accommodation was to stay with family and friends, and in North West it was the case in 83.2 percent of trips.

In the Western Cape expenditure on day trips amounted to R187,674 million and for overnight trips to R1,397 billion, Statistics SA said.

For KwaZulu-Natal, expenditure on day trips was R731,303 million and for overnight trips R2,226 billion, which was around three times more than that for day trips.

According to Statistics SA, South Africans who travelled to destinations outside the country's borders were more likely to go to other African countries rather than travelling further abroad.

Mozambique was the preferred destination with an estimated 141,000 trips. The most popular other foreign destination was the United Kingdom, with an estimated 32,000 trips.

Statistics SA said data collection for the survey was done over a two-week period from August 16 to 29, 2008.