7.3 million tourists visited South Africa 2010

South Africa's minister of tourism, Marthinus van Schalkwyk, mentioned some current statistics on South African tourism in his speech at the opening ceremony of Meetings Africa 2011, Africa's business tourism lekgotla (a consultative process between groups pursuing a common goal), at the Sandton Convention Centre, Johannesburg, South Africa

• Over 7.3 million tourists visited South Africa between January and November 2010
• Tourism contributed an estimated 7.7% to South Africa's Gross Domestic Product in 2010
• South Africa has already secured almost 200 meetings and conferences in South Africa over the next five years, attracting more than 300,000 delegates to the country.
• The potential economic impact of these confirmed meetings and conferences is more than R1.6 billion
• In 2009, approximately 500,000 business tourists came to South Africa, about 4.7% of total tourist arrivals. 
• This represents a total economic value of about R4 billion with business tourists spending an average of R5,300 during their stay in South Africa. 
• The average length of stay business tourists also increased from 4.6 nights in 2009.
• According to the International Congress and Convention Association (ICCA) South Africa is ranked 34th globally and first in Africa for 2009 in terms of the number of meetings hosted.
• Africa hosted 3.8% of the meetings or 314 meetings with 90 held in South Africa
• Cape Town was the leading city in Africa with 49 meetings, Johannesburg was ranked 5th, and Durban 10th, compared to other African cities.