Once a country that proudly offered a wide array of “Smartie box” tourism offerings, industry experts now fear South Africa has reverted to a two-centre destination post-pandemic with Cape Town and Kruger National Park capturing the lion’s share of tourism. Without concerted, industry-wide efforts to address this, the sector’s growth will be constrained.

Speaking during a SATSA webinar on the urgent need for geographical spread in tourism, CEO David Frost said the sector has not recovered as well as many believe because the true performance is masked by excitement about Cape Town and Kruger. He said narrow focus on these attractions imposes an “artificial ceiling” on the sector’s ability to grow and create jobs.

Sluggish source market recovery

Webinar panellists cited data from their respective businesses. Illana Clayton, CEO of Travel Smart Crew, said: “It feels like we’ve reverted to a two-centre destination.”

Travel Smart Crew data for 2023 shows 47.1% of visitor spend went to the greater Kruger area and 29.3% to the Western Cape, excluding the Garden Route. Outside Kruger, Mpumalanga received only 0.8%. The Garden Route accounted for just 4% of spend.

Data from other destination management companies (DMCs) shows similar trends.

The problem is compounded by the fact that some of South Africa’s key source markets have not recovered to anywhere near 2019 levels yet. Germany and the UK, among the country’s top markets, have recovered to 79% and 80% of 2019 levels respectively. Clayton said this is due to an array of macro issues ranging from geopolitics to the high cost of living as well as concerns about South African issues such as safety, road infrastructure and load shedding.

Helen Bolton, Head of Product and Sales for New Frontiers, said lack of skills, locally and among international partners, is preventing them from selling outside of the two main areas. In KwaZulu-Natal, where the company is based, numbers are at a third of 2019 data. Bolton said education about the province’s offerings is a solution.

Emerging market opportunities

Johan Groenewald, MD of Royal African Discoveries, catering to new and emerging markets, particularly Asia, said travellers are open to seeing more – some are visiting as many as three provinces during a five-night stay.

“We work in markets with no history of a traditional way of experiencing South Africa,” he said. This is reflected in the company’s data showing a much greater geographical spread than any of the other DMCs who shared their data with SATSA. The Western Cape accounted for 50% of room nights booked in 2024 and greater Kruger for just 3.03%. Mpumalanga accounted for a bigger share at 6.88% and North West Province for 12.2% of room nights.

He said pushing international markets to sell areas that are not popular or well-known is unlikely to yield results. “Demand dictates where people are going. We need to find ways to get people to want to go to another area,” said Groenewald.

East Africa surges ahead

South Africa’s loss has been East Africa’s gain. Kenya has recovered to 134% of 2019 numbers and Tanzania to 119%.

Monika Iuel, Chief Tourism Officer for Wesgro, said this could be attributed to a “time poor” industry selling easy “fly and flop packages” consisting of just a flight and hotel or lodge. Doing this at five-star level is ideal because it is lucrative with relatively little effort.

“Selling a safari and Cape Town is easy for people to understand,” she said. But South Africa isn’t “winning the safari race” on the continent, she added.

Iuel said a key problem is that “we should be solving for the future rather than recovering from the past”. This means looking at Gen Z markets and how they book while exploring new markets like China, which present “a big opportunity to hit reset”.

Suzi Benadie, Sales Director for Sense of Africa, said the country could focus its attention on some areas. South Africa has a strong repeater market so focusing attention on groups and offering more varied itineraries could be a way to target travellers who “already have trust and faith in a destination”, she said. Coupled with a tour operator they trust, there is more chance of encouraging geographic spread.

Benadie also suggested combining iconic lesser-known destinations and paying close attention to the selection of participants in international roadshows to better represent the whole country.