South Africa’s busiest tourist border crossings

South Africa’s biggest tourist gateways aren’t all airports.

In fact, the latest tourism figures show that the country’s busiest tourist entry points are actually major land border crossings, reflecting the huge role neighbouring countries play in South Africa’s tourism industry.

Stats SA recorded 835 380 overnight tourists entering South Africa in September 2026. Of these, 627 230, or 75.1%, arrived by road, compared with 208 146 by air and just four by sea.

The 10 busiest tourist border crossings

Looking specifically at road-based tourist arrivals, these were the busiest ports in September 2026:

Rank	Border crossing	Tourists
1	Lebombo	180 429
2	Beit Bridge	143 675
3	Maseru Bridge	52 318
4	Ficksburg	51 684
5	Oshoek	41 854
6	Groblers Bridge	25 454
7	Caledonspoort	18 738
8	Golela	16 887
9	Jeppe’s Reef	14 516
10	Kosibay	9 959

The figures come from Stats SA’s September 2026 tourism data on tourist arrivals by port of entry.

Lebombo is way out in front

The Lebombo border post was by far the busiest tourist road entry point during September.

It recorded 180 429 tourist arrivals, putting it more than 36 000 tourists ahead of Beit Bridge in second place.

Lebombo connects South Africa with Mozambique, and its high ranking corresponds with Mozambique also being the country’s biggest source of tourists during the month.

Mozambique recorded 182 751 tourists in September, according to Stats SA.

Lebombo’s tourist numbers were also up 3.8% year on year, from 173 765 in September 2025 to 180 429 in September 2026.

Beit Bridge comes in second

The Beit Bridge crossing between South Africa and Zimbabwe recorded 143 675 tourist arrivals.

That made it the second-busiest tourist road entry point in the country.

However, its numbers were slightly lower than the same month in 2025, when 148 641 tourists entered through the crossing, a decline of 3.3%.

Zimbabwe was South Africa’s second-biggest source of tourists in September, with 178 966 overnight tourists recorded.

How do the border crossings compare with airports?

The dominance of the road network is particularly striking when compared with South Africa’s airports.

Among tourists arriving by air, OR Tambo International Airport was the busiest entry point, with 144 132 tourist arrivals.

Cape Town International Airport followed with 61 832. By comparison, Lebombo alone recorded 180 429 tourist arrivals by road. This reflects the different travel patterns of South Africa’s tourism markets.

Some 90.6% of overseas tourists arrived by air, while 92.5% of SADC tourists arrived by road.

Among tourists from other African countries outside SADC, 86.4% arrived by air.

Stats SA cautions that its border data measures movements rather than unique people. This means the same person can be recorded more than once if they cross the border multiple times during the month.

Stats SA also notes that some ports have missing data because of network coverage issues, although the Department of Home Affairs is working to improve coverage.

Nevertheless, the figures provide a useful snapshot of where international tourists are entering South Africa, and show just how important the country’s land borders remain to its tourism industry.