Let me start by clearly stating that the South African tourism and hospitality industry is neglecting South Africans. Let me explain.

Ok you’re back from your holiday and you’ve likely started to count the costs, neh. it cost a little more than what you expected.

For years, South Africa has boasted stunning natural beauty, diverse cultures, and world-class tourism experiences. But the questions that have for some time been bubbling under are: are these tourism treasures now becoming a luxury only for the wealthy? Are these experiences even meant for both locals?

For example, a growing segment of hotels in Cape Town are targeting foreign tourists almost exclusively, and thus it is becoming increasingly unaffordable for South Africans—middle class and up. This is particularly true of the V&A Waterfront, which is said to be looking at pursuing a strategy of owning more and more of its hotels going forward.

For context:

In 2023, total expenditure incurred on domestic trips was about R57.9 billion. Day trip spending amounted to about R20,2 billion and overnight trip spending of R37,6 billion.
2023 Total expenditure was mostly driven by high expenditure on ‘other mostly undefined spending’ (R13,6 billion), followed by shopping (R11,7 billion) in 2022, while in 2023 total expenditure during domestic tourism trips was mostly driven by shopping (R18,6 billion), followed by domestic transport spending (R17,9 billion).

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