South Africa’s Year in Travel 2023: Travel trends shaping the tourism landscape

Mauritius and Thailand are just two destinations that continue to be popular amongst budget-savvy South African travellers, but there are also some unexpected foreign currencies that our rand can go toe-to-toe with:

Mauritius [MUR 2.36 = ZAR 1]*

Japan [JPY 7.93 = ZAR 1]

Turkey [TRY 1.55 = ZAR 1]

Thailand [THB 1.88 = ZAR 1]

Hungary [HUF 18.66 = ZAR 1]

* Exchange rates on 1 December 2023, source: https://www.google.com/finance/

Remember, choosing a holiday destination isn’t just about the exchange rate. There are plenty of countries where you can stretch your rand further. Think affordable food, accommodation, and even a few luxuries thrown in. You can also save by heading to countries that don’t require you to get a visa, as the fees can really add up.

The northernmost destination booked by global Flight Centre customers was Longyearbyen on the Norwegian island of Svalbard. The island and its chief port are well within the Arctic Circle and feature on adventure cruise itineraries between April and September when summer temperatures reach 7 °C.

The Southernmost destination our customers visited was Ushuaia, capital of the Tierra del Fuego region in southern Argentina. Summer temperatures there reach a comparatively balmy 13 °C.

Our top 10 travel destinations around the world based on the number of hotel bookings were:

1. South Africa
2. Thailand
3. Bali
4. Mauritius
5. UAE
6. Zanzibar
7. Italy
8. USA
9. France
10. UK

There were also various destinations that experienced a massive boom in South African bookings this year compared to 2022:

1. Indonesia bookings increased by 370%
2. USA bookings increased by 111%
3. Thailand bookings increased by 108%
4. UK bookings increased by 106%
5. Italy bookings increased by 74%

As mentioned, women travelling solo were our most common type of traveller. The top 10 destinations they headed to in 2023 were:

1. London
2. Rome
3. Mauritius
4. Dubai
5. Windhoek
6. Amsterdam
7. Edmonton
8. Aberdeen
9. Abu Dhabi
10. Cairo

Tours were popular amongst our solo jetsetters. Here are some interesting nuggets:

• This year, 56% of Contiki travellers were solo travellers, with 62% were women. This is up from the same period pre-pandemic where only 45% of Contiki travellers were travelling solo and 58% were women.
• The Thai Island Hopper West Contiki tour and multi-country European trips are a solo favourite for South Africans.
• Of The Travel Corporation’s open-age brands (combined Costsaver, Trafalgar, Insight, and Luxury Gold), solo travellers are up from 11% pre-pandemic to 15% this year. Of these travellers, 81% are women.
• Italy is the most popular destination across our open-age brands for solo travellers.

We saw a growing number of families booking their holidays with Flight Centre in 2023 – and we booked flights for a total of 262 infants travelling with parents! That’s a lot of games of Peek-a-boo-I-see-you that countless parents/guardians kindly initiated for our benefit. And we thank you.

Our most senior client? 101 years old! Proof that Flight Centre really does cater for everyone – and that you’re never too old (or too young) to travel!

Of the families who booked getaways with us in 2023, the average trip cost R65,549 with an average duration of one week, the average lead time (how many days booked in advance) was 62 days, and the adult sealing the holiday deal was an average of 42 years old. Of these bookings, a whopping 68% were for international vacations.

Whether for honeymoons, anniversary celebrations, or ‘just because’ loved-up escapes, 70% of our customers booking as couples opted to treat themselves to an international holiday. Those who kept it local chose Joburg, the Kruger Park, Cape Town, Durban and Hoedspruit as their top destinations. Romantic retreats tended to last nine days and cost R36,995, on average, and were booked around 64 days in advance – yes, spontaneous couples’ holidays are great, but there’s obviously something to be said about the early (love)bird catching all the best deals!

Solo travel is skyrocketing, with most lone jetsetters stating their reason for travelling solo is the ability to do so on their own terms: ‘I want to see the world and don’t want to wait for others’, according to Solo Traveler’s 2023 Reader Survey. We hear ya! And now it makes sense why solo travellers are our most prominent clients right now. Their average age is 52 and their holidays lasted a week, with a lead time of around 34 days, on average. The average cost of a solo trip? R14,280 – and 68% of these trips were international.

The top five international destinations for both solo travellers and couples were Mauritius, Victoria Falls (Zimbabwe), Zanzibar, the Maldives, and in fifth place, a tie: the UK and Colombo, Sri Lanka.

No matter how much we’re irked by a lack of leg room and having to politely hold in our elbows for hours at a time, economy class still reigns supreme. Here’s which cabin classes our customers chose this year:

International Flights

• Economy: 90%
• Business Class: 7%
• Premium Economy: 2%
• First Class: 1%

Domestic Flights

• Economy: 81%
• Business Class: 19%

Most international travellers (99.9%) chose to fly to one destination before flying home again. Which means that just a fraction took advantage of the rands you can save if you opt for multi-stop flights taking in several destinations – you might want to look into that!

‘Complex air’ might sound like the awkward atmosphere you experience having taken your first date to a bar only to bump into your ex who’s there with your hot personal trainer, but it’s actually a term we travel agent types give to great value multi-stop airfares that span countries and continents.

The longest and most complex air booking Flight Centre made globally in 2023 was for a flight itinerary with 13 legs from Brisbane to Sydney then on to Santiago (Chile), Cusco (Peru), and back to Santiago before heading to Buenos Aires. From Buenos Aires, this person then flew to Rio de Janeiro and on to London, Lisbon, Casablanca, Doha, and Bangkok before returning to Sydney and back to Brisbane.

That would’ve been some holiday. Maybe it was booked by someone who couldn’t get out of that bar fast enough to jump on a plane going places far, far away …

Because 2023 was our first uninterrupted, no holds barred, go-(almost)-wherever-you-like year in travel for a while, it's not surprising a few old favourites saw an uptick in visitors. These international destinations attracted the biggest increase of South African bookings this year compared to 2022:

1. Mauritius up 14.53%
2. London up 13.22%
3. Zanzibar up 10.21%
4. Johannesburg up 16.32%
5. Dubai up 23.91%

Which begs the inevitable question: which destinations are we picking to be South African travellers’ top spots in 2024? – behind Cape Town, of course, which has always reigned supreme:

1. Mauritius
2. Dubai, UAE
3. Phuket, Thailand
4. Bali, Indonesia
5. Ras Al Khaimah, UAE
6. Zanzibar, Tanzania
7. Maldives
8. Paris, France
9. Venice, Italy
10. Singapore