South Africa experienced a 7% growth in overseas tourists the first six months of 2014, compared with the previous year, according to arrival stats published by Statistics South Africa (StatsSA) on Tuesday.

During the first six months of last year, SA saw 1 099 337 tourist arrivals from overseas, compared with 1 026 753 for the same period in 2013.

SA’s largest source markets for the period were the UK, with 201 103 arrivals, followed by the US at 140 282 and Germany at 130 307.

The greatest growth among SA’s key source markets came from The Netherlands, France and Germany, which experienced growth of 19.26%, 18.88% and 14.67% respectively.

Markets that showed a decrease in arrivals for the period include India, China and Brazil. India decreased 6.51% from 50 182 arrivals for the first half of 2013 to 46 917 arrivals in 2014, while China decreased 5.35% from 53 921 to 51 024 arrivals, and Brazil decreased from 22 559 to 21 791.

StatsSA has stopped counting people transiting through South Africa as tourists. The body announced in a note that tables reporting on tourists excluded transit travellers. The inclusion of transit figures within the tourism stats has long been criticised by the industry.

As a result of the revision, to compare the 2014 figures with 2013 it is necessary to deduct the transit figures from the 2013 totals, which Tourism Update has done for the purpose of this report.

Stats SA expects to publish stats for the remainder of 2014 on its website on Wednesday. Keep an eye on Tourism Update for more coverage.