These are the top 10 most searched for South African destinations

With the rising cost of petrol, food, electricity and just about everything else but your salary, it comes as a surprise that South Africans are willing to spend more of their hard-earned cash on luxury accommodation than they did before the Covid-19 pandemic.

According to new data released by global travel search engine, cheapflights.co.za, South Africans are booking more expensive accommodation, especially as they are finding more deals for hotels for almost half the price for the upcoming months than in the equivalent period in 2019.

The data also revealed that searches for SA’s hotels jumped by about seven-fold (661%) in the last two weeks of June compared to pre-pandemic levels.  

According to a statement released on Friday, searches for five-star hotels have increased.

For the period under review in 2022, one-third of SA’s travellers (about 33%) are looking at five-star hotels for travelling in winter, with the beachfront, pool and Wi-Fi being the top three accommodation amenities most often filtered.

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So, where do South Africans go on holiday?

Top SA destinations

According to data, the top ten most-searched-for SA destinations, in order, were:

• Durban
• Cape Town
• Pretoria
• Johannesburg
• Sun City
• East London
• Umhlanga
• Pietermaritzburg
• Bloemfontein
• Kimberley

Flight searches to Durban from other cities have increased by about 126% in June compared to the pre-pandemic period.

Travellers are also finding hotel deals in Durban for about 35% less than they did three years ago, with the average hotel price landing at about R1,120 per night.

Cape Town has also become a lot more affordable, with travellers paying around 43% less compared to the same period in 2019.

The average hotel price for the Mother City now hovers around R1,540 per night.

Pretoria reached the lowest average per-night hotel rate across the top five SA travel destinations. Average hotel prices found in Pretoria are as low as R670 per overnight stay.

A popular family holiday destination for both local and international tourists, Sun City, is offering hotel deals at 31% less than three years ago.

ALSO SEE: Sun City got its name for a reason

Laure Bornet, GM, KAYAK EMEA – who manages cheapflights.co.za – said they have noted significant hotel price decreases over the South African winter travel period, in which the school holidays fall.

She attributes this price drop to hotels being hungry for accelerating the tourism and hotel occupancy recovery process after the commercial accommodation sector was one of the hardest hit by the travel restrictions and lockdowns.

Compiled by Xanet Scheepers