2024 Easter travel at a six year high

South Africans travelled more than 2.3 billion kilometres over the Easter long weekend (Thursday, 28 March to Monday, 01 April) in 2024, the highest number recorded in six years of tracking data and 12% up on 2023.

Joe Spring, head of Location and Commerce at Lightstone, said this was according to aggregated and anonymised Tracker telemetry data which Lightstone has access to.

But while movement increased, 83% travelled within their home province, suggesting most people didn’t go too far from home.

Easter weekend mileage

“Gauteng experienced the highest overall mileage and Northern Cape the lowest on their roads over the period at 791 million km and 43 million km respectively, unsurprisingly given population distribution and area remoteness in the case of the Northern Cape,” Spring said.

The Western Cape received the lowest inflow mileage (only 15 million km travelled on its roads by those living outside the Western Cape), although Spring said this would have been offset by Western Cape residents who most likely stayed at home and added to the Easter trade.

Limpopo received highest inflow volumes (71 million km travelled on its roads by non-residents) but it was the Free State that enjoyed the highest percentage growth on its usual volumes (51% of Easter mileage attributable to non-residents) as people both holidayed there, crossed through it and filled up at service stations.

Mileage (in millions of km) done by residents in the surrounding provinces

Spring said the busiest service station in the country over the Easter period was the TOTAL - Kgotsong Filling Station (R37, Lebowakgomo, Limpopo), which served cars travelling in both directions. Around 35 000 vehicles stopped at the filling station over the five days.

Next was the perennially popular ENGEN - Bergview 1 Stop with 27 000 stops, just outside Harrismith which primarily served traffic going to the coast, but was accessible for north bounders with a few twists and turns. TOTAL - Petroport Alzu with 20 000 vehicle stops on the N4, between Emalahleni and Nelspruit, followed next, and it too served both traffic directions via a direct flyover.

“When assessing the volume of stops at all South African service stations combined, by day of week and hour of day, we see motorists filling up to start their trip or refuelling at 7am on Thursday, with the volumes peaking at midday and remaining fairly constant until around 5pm,” Spring said.

Thereafter, we see the usual climbs and dips as people move about, refuelling enroute to and from Easter family get-togethers and other activities. Spring said the return journey was more ‘evenly paced’, with many possibly staying an additional day at their holiday spots with schools only due back on the Wednesday.

Numer of service station stops across South Africa by day and hour