In 2026, that feeling is increasingly hard to find. Bali is getting busier by the day, Santorini is feeling the pressure of the summer cruise ship calendar, and even Lisbon – once considered Portugal’s hidden gem – now has snaking queues for a decent pastéis de nata.

Look a little closer, though, and you’ll find alternative destinations that deliver everything that draws travellers to the Mediterranean and beyond: warm water, exceptional food, and real adventure – usually at a fraction of the cost and without the crowds. And increasingly, it’s becoming even easier to reach these destinations.

Take Airlink’s new Johannesburg–Nacala service (launched February 2026), which opens up northern Mozambique, for example. As well as LATAM’s new non-stop route between Cape Town and São Paulo (launching July 2026), suddenly putting South America firmly on the Saffa radar.

“We’re seeing a real shift in what our clients are asking for,” says Sue Garrett, GM Supply, Pricing & Marketing at Flight Centre South Africa. “They still want an unforgettable, bucket-list experience – but they want it without the crowds. They want to feel like they found something special. And right now, there’s genuine opportunity to do exactly that.”

Fancy an out-of-the-ordinary travel experience? Here are five destinations worth a serious look.

Kefalonia, Greece

On the Ionian side of Greece, Kefalonia offers everything the Cyclades promise without the crowds: turquoise coves like Myrtos and Antisamos, sleepy harbour towns, and vineyards producing crisp Robola whites found nowhere else. While Santorini and Mykonos strain under the weight of their own popularity, Kefalonia feels more relaxed even at the height of summer.

“Kefalonia does have a summer peak, but since it’s the largest of the Ionian Islands, its size and varied terrain help absorb the crowds, allowing visitors to find quieter spots, enchanting beaches, and friendly, local tavernas,” says Garrett. “It’s still part of the Schengen zone, but for South Africans already budgeting for that admin, it delivers a beautiful Greek island experience.”

Top tip: Kefalonia is a big island, so hire a car and spend a few days both on the north and south sides of the island. Staying in both regions drastically cuts down on long, winding drives and allows you to explore different sites and beaches in the most relaxed way possible. Pack water shoes for the pebbly beaches and ask locals where to find the best swimming spots – as some of the more famous beaches have strong currents and undertows.

Albania’s Riviera

A short, high-speed ferry trip from Corfu gets you to Sarandë, and from there, it’s just a twelve-kilometre drive south to Ksamil, where some of Albania’s most beautiful beaches rival anything in the region. Inland, the Roman ruins of Butrint and the impossibly blue spring known as the “Blue Eye” add a bit of interest and adventure to beach time.

Yes, Albania still feels basic – bus timetables are informal and cash is king, but that’s exactly what makes it feel genuinely undiscovered. Albania sits outside the Schengen zone (South Africans will need an e-Visa via the government portal) and is following almost exactly the same trajectory Croatia took a decade ago, then Montenegro more recently. In other words, it won’t stay this quiet for much longer.

Top tip: Bring Euros. While the local currency is the Albanian lek, most tourist businesses and accommodations readily accept Euros at a set rate. Keep a few handy as many of Ksamil’s beaches are private, so you’ll need to pay for access, a lounger, and beach umbrella.

Georgia’s wine country

Tucked between the Caucasus Mountains and the Black Sea, Georgia is the birthplace of wine, with an 8,000-year-old qvevri winemaking tradition in the Kakheti region. Tbilisi mixes cobbled old-town streets and sulphur bathhouses with a restaurant scene that has earned serious international attention, while the Alazani Valley delivers vineyards, medieval watchtowers, and near total quiet. The rand goes a long way here, covering excellent guesthouses and meals that would cost considerably more with a French label attached, and South Africans can enter visa-free for up to a year.

Top tip: Book lunch or dinner a couple of days in advance, especially at smaller, family-run estates, as independent winemakers often only prepare meals for those who book ahead. Oh, and pay a visit to Sighnaghi, Georgia’s own “City of Love”!

Uzbekistan’s Silk Road cities

Samarkand’s Registan Square, with its turquoise domes and towering gateways, is one of those sights that photographs simply cannot prepare you for, yet it remains filed under “someday” for most South African travellers. The Silk Road triangle of Samarkand, Bukhara, and Khiva now forms a manageable, well-supported itinerary, with Bukhara’s old city still functioning as a living town of carpet workshops and spice bazaars, not a museum piece. Costs on the ground remain low, and the region’s high-speed bullet trains save you from long, bumpy car rides.

Top tip: Uzbekistan’s high-speed rail tickets go on sale exactly 45 days before departure and sell out within minutes, so create an account on the official Uzbekistan Railways website or app in advance and be ready to book the moment your travel dates open.

Argentina: Buenos Aires

Argentina slipped off the radar when SAA discontinued its direct flights to Buenos Aires back in 2014. But with the LATAM São Paulo–Cape Town route launching in September, the magic of Buenos Aires – tango, literature, grand European-style architecture, an outstanding café and steakhouse culture – is back within easy reach. Unfortunately, says Garrett, Argentina is not as affordable as it once was.

“South Africans feel right at home in Buenos Aires’ legendary parillas (steakhouses), especially with a glass of Malbec in hand! The architectural beauty of the city, complete with grand boulevards and bustling sidewalk cafés, really is something special,” says Garrett. “But if you’re looking for more value for money, consider Colombia – both Medellín and Cartagena offer extraordinary experiences, and both are also back in play thanks to LATAM’s new route.”

Top tip: Buenos Aires – a three-hour flight from São Paulo – is packed with personality. The best way to experience it? On a private city tour or local-led food tour. You’ll get a sense of the city’s best neighbourhoods and quickly fall in love with everything on offer.

“The travellers who come back from a holiday feeling the most energised are usually the ones who took a chance on somewhere they had to explain to their friends and family… and returned with stories they’ll be telling those same loved ones about for years,” Garrett concludes.  

In 2026, those places still exist. The question is simply whether you find them before everyone else does.

The timing is no accident. With global airfares up more than 20% over the past year, South Africans are relooking their holiday budgets, and micro-luxuries offer a happy solution: trim the base costs, then spend deliberately on a few premium touches that lift the whole experience.

“A handful of moments decide how you’ll remember a holiday,” says Zay Ferguson-Nair, Customer Experience Leader at Flight Centre South Africa. “Very few of us can afford 10 days of blanket luxury right now, so micro-luxuries make a real difference. Choose them deliberately, put your money there, and a modest trip starts to feel like something really special.”

So, where should your rands go?

A transfer waiting for you

Thailand remains one of Flight Centre’s top destinations. But it’s a long way away. By the time you land in Bangkok, you’ll have been travelling for around 22 hours. Working out taxis in an unfamiliar city – especially while you’re tired and desperate for a shower – is no way to start a holiday.

A pre-booked transfer, with a driver holding your name in arrivals and delivering you straight to your hotel, is a small splurge when you look at the big picture. The same logic applies in Istanbul, Athens, or Rome: the first few hours of a trip set the mood for everything that follows.

In fact, as Ferguson-Nair explains, many packages will include transfers as standard.

“Always ask your travel advisor about transfers – it’ll completely change the tone of day one,” she says.

A guide who really knows their stuff

A private or small-group guide for a single morning will teach you more than a week of aimless wandering. Visit Istanbul’s Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque or join a local-led food walk in Athens (coffee, pastries, and a delicious selection of mezes and dips) before you catch a ferry out to the islands.

Three hours with the right person condenses 20 years of local knowledge into an unforgettable outing, and it changes how you see everything else on the trip.

One table worth booking

Self-catering helps keep holiday costs down, and there’s real pleasure in shopping in local grocery stores and farmers’ markets. Just build in one exception: a special meal, booked before you leave home. If you’re in London, consider lunch at the River Café in Hammersmith, afternoon tea at The Savoy, or dinner at The Ivy (the original, located right in the heart of the West End). Or keep it even simpler. In Mauritius, a sundowner at a beautiful west coast beach bar, cocktail in hand as the sky catches fire, can be the entire evening’s plan, and one of the best moments of the trip.

One experience to anchor it all

Every trip deserves a centrepiece: a traditional Creole cooking class in Seychelles where you shop Mahé’s markets in the morning and enjoy the spoils at lunch, a catamaran cruise off Mauritius’ north coast, or a boat across the Bosphorus Strait at golden hour with Europe on one bank and Asia on the other. Pre-book one anchor experience per destination. The good ones fill up fast, and they become the stories you tell when you get home.

The one extraordinary night

Then there’s the bigger version of the idea. Marriott Bonvoy coined the phrase “lux-scaping” in its 2026 EMEA Ticket to Travel Report: booking a single night of unapologetic luxury at the very start or very end of your trip, then spending modestly in between. Arrive and recover from a long flight in style – or end your holiday on an unforgettable high before boarding for home.

“The first and last nights are special,” says Ferguson-Nair. “Spend it somewhere extraordinary and the whole holiday borrows its glow. It’s one of the easiest upgrades in travel, and right now it’s also one of the most affordable.”

The maths of memory

The trips we describe for years afterwards tend to be the ones where the money landed in the right places.

“In 2026, spending less overall while spending better on a few chosen indulgences is a smart strategy. And it’s well within reach,” concludes Ferguson-Nair.

Instead, Corporate Traveller’s data points to something more interesting: a marked increase in trip duration. The insights form part of Corporate Traveller’s latest report: The smarter business travel guide for finance leaders.

As Juliette Da Silva, CFO of Flight Centre Travel Group South Africa explains, in 2024, the average business trip length was 3.21 days. In 2025 it jumped to 5.31 days – a 65% increase year-on-year.

“Companies are batching their meetings,” says Da Silva. “Travellers are visiting multiple stakeholders and combining market visits that would previously have been split into three separate trips. If you’re going to incur the cost and the traveller disruption of getting on a plane, you want to maximise the return on that journey.”

It’s also called trip stacking and Herman Heunes, General Manager of Corporate Traveller South Africa, sees the shift play out in booking patterns every day.

“The trips we’re booking in 2026 look nothing like the trips we were booking in 2023,” he says. “Clients are coming to us with bigger, more complex itineraries – multi-city, multi-stakeholder, often spanning a week or more. What used to be three separate Johannesburg-to-Cape Town hops for three different meetings has become one trip that does all three plus a client dinner and a team workshop on the way through.”

That shift has changed how Corporate Traveller’s client conversations unfold, Heunes adds.

“Five years ago, a lot of our cost conversations were around securing the best airfare. Now they’re about trip design: how you sequence meetings, where you base yourself, which hotel is actually closest to your three client sites rather than the one with the cheapest headline rate. Those decisions often save more money than a fare negotiation ever would.”

The behavioural shift is healthy for both ROI and traveller wellness, but it’s shifting where budget pressure shows up.

“Longer trips mean more hotel nights,” says Da Silva. “And South African hotel rates have been climbing steadily over the last three years – from an average room night of R1,050 in 2023 to R1,301 in 2025. So, while companies are getting better value per trip, they also need to be watching accommodation spend much more closely than they used to.”

Similarly, average international rates have climbed from R2,424 in 2023 to R2,877 in 2025. For a finance leader whose travel programme is still measured primarily on airfare savings, that’s a blind spot worth closing.

Both Da Silva and Heunes agree that travel policies need to catch up with traveller behaviour.

“The longer-trip, higher-ROI pattern should be baked into policy, not treated as an exception,” Heunes says. “If batching meetings is the new normal, your policy should actively encourage it. That means flexibility on minimum stay duration, smart advance-purchase requirements, and preferred supplier relationships that reward the kind of multi-night bookings your travellers are now making.”

Put simply, companies can save money in a number of ways: booking in advance (and as Da Silva notes, advance booking windows are already lengthening, up to 17.9 days in 2025), leveraging loyalty programmes, and exploring alternate accommodation options including guesthouses. Geographic clustering – combining multiple close destinations into a single trip – cuts airfare costs, while negotiating midweek rates lowers accommodation spend.

Da Silva frames it as a broader mindset shift.

“South African companies aren’t travelling less because business travel matters less,” Da Silva says. “The value of business travel is not in question. Instead, they’re travelling differently, stretching the return on every journey and tightening the discipline around when and how trips get booked. In today’s economic environment you have to make sure every rand counts. The companies doing this well are treating travel less as a line-item cost and more as a managed investment – and using current conditions as an opportunity to reset policies, renegotiate supplier agreements, and build programmes that flex with market volatility.”For a closer look at the data – and a practical framework for managing travel spend in volatile conditions – download Corporate Traveller’s latest report here.

2026 is not the year to leave this important decision that late.

Three forces are converging to make this December the most competitive South African holiday season on record, and understanding all three is the difference between a December holiday that works and one that costs significantly more than it should.

Force #1: The fuel crisis is removing seats from the market

December’s capacity picture is tighter than it appears. While Gulf carriers have largely restored their networks (Emirates has confirmed it has restored 96% of its global capacity, and Qatar Airways is targeting 150+ destinations from mid-June), the fuel crisis is driving a separate and significant wave of capacity reduction across the broader industry.

Airlines have cut 13,000 flights globally in May alone, removing nearly two million seats from the market according to Cirium. Lufthansa has announced 20,000 flight cancellations through October, Spirit Airlines has ceased operations entirely, and Air France, KLM, Air Canada, Delta, and SAS have all trimmed their summer schedules. The reason in every case is the same: jet fuel has more than doubled in price since the conflict began, making routes that were previously profitable no longer viable.

December is South Africa’s most demand-intensive travel month. It’s also the month into which a portion of disrupted June and July bookings have been rerouted as some nervous travellers adjust their plans. The combination of compressed supply from fuel-driven flight cancellations and elevated demand creates exactly the pricing pressure that makes early booking essential.

“December availability is filling faster than usual this year. The travellers who act now will be accessing a meaningfully different market from those who wait until spring to book,” says Antoinette Turner, General Manager at Flight Centre South Africa.

Force #2: Fuel costs are embedded – and not coming down quickly

As mentioned, jet fuel prices have increased from approximately $831 per tonne in late February to a high of $1,838 by early April. The Gulf region normally accounts for approximately half of Europe’s jet fuel imports, but that supply chain has not recovered to pre-conflict levels and, according to industry experts, will not do so quickly even if the Strait of Hormuz fully reopens.

The fuel arriving at South African airports today was purchased at higher prices weeks ago. South Africa’s dependence on imported fuel, supply chain lags, and the domestic refinery constraints that have been a structural feature of the local market since 2021 all mean that global oil price movements take time to filter through to local pump prices, and longer still to affect airline fare structures.

“Fuel surcharges are dynamic,” explains Turner. “They’re recalculated and reapplied as fuel costs shift. South African travellers booking December today are locking in today’s surcharge level, while the travellers who wait until spring to think about Christmas are booking at whatever surcharge level applies then – and the direction of travel, in the absence of a full and sustained resolution to the conflict, is upward.”

Furthermore, a 25 basis point interest rate hike was announced at the MPC meeting on 28 May, adding further pressure to household travel budgets, and in April, the rand was 3.5% weaker against the dollar than pre-war levels. In short, the financial environment for South African travellers is not improving in the short term, so the argument for locking in December travel costs now – at current levels, with current flexibility policies – has never been more concrete.

Force #3: South Africans already know this – they just need to act on it

South African travel intenders are the most advance-booking market in the world. 96% actively adapt their travel plans to make travel more affordable, the highest of any market globally, according to Flight Centre’s global PR report. 48% cite booking flights and accommodation well in advance as their primary affordability strategy (again the highest globally) and 46% cite travelling outside peak season.

Rather than abstract preferences, these are the specific behaviours of a market that understands, better than any other, that timing is the most powerful lever available to the price-conscious traveller.

The December saving most South Africans are leaving on the table

Emirates and Qatar Airways have returned to South African routes with competitive fares and genuine flexibility built into new bookings. Both carriers are currently offering complimentary date change options – a direct acknowledgment of the current environment and a meaningful reduction in the risk of committing to December travel today.

On several key routes, Gulf carrier pricing is currently meaningfully below non-Gulf alternatives. The gap on certain routes exceeds 60%. For a December booking, where base fares are already elevated by seasonal demand, that gap compounds into a material saving per person. A family of four booking December flights to Phuket, Singapore, or London via a Gulf carrier versus a non-Gulf alternative could be saving tens of thousands of rands on the fare alone.

Book early. Book smart.

The December holiday that most South Africans are planning to sort out in a few months’ time is available now, at a better price, with better availability, and with the flexibility to adapt if anything changes between now and then.

“The travellers who act on this today will be the ones who look back on December 2026 as the holiday that delivered everything they hoped for – without breaking the bank,” Turner concludes.

JOHANNESBURG – You’re at the airport. Business class ticket in hand, you head toward the lounge only to be turned away at the door. Or your meeting moves and you try to change your flight, and discover the original ticket is non-refundable. Or you arrive at check-in with two bags, as you’ve grown accustomed to in business class, and learn you’re only entitled to one.

It’s the reality of “unbundling”: the practice of separating a standard airline ticket into its individual components. As an example, business class used to mean something fairly consistent. A lie-flat seat on long haul. Lounge access. Two bags. The ability to change your flight if the world intervened. You paid a significant premium for it, but you knew what you were getting. Those days are over.

According to Amadeus, the shift began in 2019, when Emirates introduced its special business class ticket – a stripped-down product that retained all the onboard comforts you expect (lie-flat seat, an elevated restaurant-style dining experience and top-tier entertainment system  ) but removed ancillaries like lounge access, seat selection and chauffeur services. It was a proof of concept: passengers would accept a reduced overall experience, at a reduced cost, if the seat itself remained premium.

Other airlines soon followed, with the likes of Qatar and KLM also introducing business class “lite” options. Come 2026? Tiered business class structures are fairly standard across the industry. The seat is the same. The cabin is the same. The ticket is not.

The three things most likely to disappear

Guaranteed lounge access is usually the first casualty. United’s unbundled “Base Polaris” fare includes access to a United Club lounge – not a Polaris Lounge, with its premium dining and spa facilities. Emirates’ base fare excludes complimentary airport lounge access. But as Mummy Mafojane, GM at FCM South Africa explains, for many travellers, particularly those on long-haul journeys with onward connections, the lounge is not an optional extra – it is a significant part of what they paid for.

“It’s very different for leisure travellers and business travellers,” says Mafojane. “Leisure travellers are often happy to pick and choose their perks. But business travellers rely on lounge access to work, decompress and even shower. No access can be an unwelcome surprise.”

Flexibility is the second to go. Base-tier business class tickets are frequently non-refundable and non-changeable – conditions that would once have been unthinkable at this price point.

“This is a particularly important consideration for travel bookers and travel programme managers,” says Mafojane. “2026 has already delivered a masterclass in travel disruption – at this point, locking yourself into a rigid, non-refundable ticket isn’t a saving; it’s a liability.”

Baggage is next. Finnair’s “light” business class fare excludes checked baggage unless the passenger holds elite Oneworld or Finnair Plus status. ZIPAIR, the Japanese low-cost long-haul carrier, goes furthest of all: its lie-flat business class seat includes nothing beyond the seat itself – no baggage, no meal, no seat selection. Everything is purchased separately.

The problem isn’t the product, it’s the presentation

ZIPAIR is actually a useful reference point. A lie-flat seat with each additional service priced individually and transparently, is a coherent offering. Travellers know what they’re getting. The more significant problem arises when legacy carriers sell something structurally similar, stripped of lounge access, flexibility and baggage, while marketing it under the same business class branding that has historically implied a comprehensive end-to-end experience.

For corporate travel programmes, the consequences extend well beyond a disgruntled traveller. A non-changeable ticket reissued during disruption, a bag fee at the counter, or a stranded employee with no flexibility and no recourse represents a programme failure, not just a personal inconvenience. Base fares also typically earn fewer frequent flyer miles and accrue less toward elite status – meaning the apparent saving at the point of booking may cost considerably more when the full picture is considered.

The corporate travel blind spot

For business travellers booked through a corporate travel management system, the risk is compounded. Many company travel policies were written when business class was a single, standardised product. They haven’t yet been updated to account for fare tiers within business class, meaning an employee may be booked on a base fare and arrive expecting the full experience. Travel managers, Mafojane explains, are increasingly having to specify not just the cabin class, but the fare tier, in their booking policies.

How to check before you commit

The fare tier name is your first signal. Base, Basic, Saver, or Light anywhere in the fare description is a warning to look further. Don’t rely on the airline’s general business class page, always check the specific fare conditions attached to the ticket you’re about to buy.

Confirm lounge access explicitly. Confirm baggage allowance in the booking summary, not the marketing overview. Check whether the ticket is changeable and refundable; if it is neither, you are holding something that functions more like an economy saver fare than a traditional business class ticket, regardless of what seat you’re sitting in.

“Obviously, travellers love a lie-flat seat, and all the space and comfort business class delivers,” says Mafojane. “But flexibility trumps all when it comes to a well-functioning travel programme.”

In other words, check the Ts&Cs carefully – and compare a premium economy fare with a ‘lite’ business class fare and decide which makes more sense on the day. If you hold elite frequent flyer status, check whether it restores any stripped benefits and be very mindful of which tiers you book.

What this actually means

None of this makes the tiered model inherently dishonest. For a leisure traveller with fixed plans, carry-on luggage only, and no interest in airport lounges, a base business class fare may represent genuine value – a lie-flat seat at a significantly lower price. The issue is assumption: the assumption that business class still has a fixed, reliable definition. It doesn’t. And in a managed travel programme, that ambiguity has a cost. A traveller turned away from a lounge, stuck on a non-recoverable ticket, or charged for a bag at the airport is an irritation at best and a significant unplanned expense at worst. Knowing which tier a ticket sits in, and what that means in practice, is now a fundamental part of the booking process, not an afterthought. And the onus sits squarely with the booker or travel manager.

These two things – being the most social-media-inspired travellers in the world and the most committed to slow, restorative, nature-led experiences – are not easily reconciled. Because the destinations that dominate travel feeds are almost never the ones that deliver restoration or genuine immersion in the natural world.

“When the goal of a trip is the content it produces, the experience becomes subordinate to its documentation. Instead of admiring the sunset or enjoying the local meal, you’re managing the shot. The holiday becomes a production, and productions are exhausting in ways that holidays simply shouldn’t be,” explains Antoinette Turner, General Manager of Flight Centre South Africa.

The broader cultural mood is shifting in response. The de-influencing movement, which began as a pushback against product promotion on TikTok and has since expanded into a more general scepticism about curated online lives, reflects a growing appetite for something simpler and more honest. Travellers are beginning to ask whether the destinations they’re being sold are destinations they actually want to visit, or simply destinations they want to tick off their travel bucket list.

The destinations that deliver, and rarely trend

The data suggests South African travellers have been living this distinction for a while already.

Just under half (49%) of South African travel intenders are most likely to travel during off-peak season – again, the highest proportion of any market Flight Centre surveyed. This is primarily a cost strategy, but it also demonstrates a preference for the destination as it actually is – instead of chasing the moment that everyone else is chasing, Saffas are looking for their own version of the place.

The slow travel preference reinforces this. 86% of Saffas prioritising restful, unhurried travel isn’t compatible with the pace that Instagrammable itineraries typically demand – the four-country European sprint or the city break that ticks every famous landmark before lunch. Slow travel is, by its nature, selective. You go deeper into fewer places rather than skimming the surface of many.

Here are a few destinations that fit the bill.

• The Cederberg Wilderness Area in the Western Cape is a critical component of the Cape Floral Kingdom and nurtures some of the world’s most elusive plant species, like the Snow Protea. The Sneeuberg peak, the highest in the range, and other isolated places within this area are the only places on earth where the rare snow protea survives. The area also holds a significant collection of San rock art, with some paintings dating back 8,000 years.
• The Wild Coast is another underrated destination. It lies within the Pondoland Centre of Endemism, a global biodiversity hotspot where half the coastline features indigenous forests harbouring previously unknown plant species, like rare cycads and yellowwoods. And if you’re looking for a unique experience, each winter, the world’s largest biomass migration, the Sardine Run, sweeps along the coast, drawing a feeding frenzy of dolphins, sharks, seals and seabirds.
• Mozambique’s Quirimbas Archipelago sits at the northern extreme of the Mozambican coast, comprising around 32 islands from Pemba to near Tanzania – and it receives a fraction of the attention directed at Bazaruto, despite offering comparable marine biodiversity (including 52 coral species, 140 molluscs, and five different species of marine turtle). The diving is also world-class, with warm year-round temperatures, ranging from 25 to 29 °C.
• Zambia’s Lower Zambezi National Park offers a safari experience that the more famous parks like Kruger or the Serengeti can rarely deliver: genuine remoteness. The park was established in 1983 after serving as Zambia’s presidential game reserve, which kept it protected from mass tourism. It sits along the southern bank of the Zambezi, with Zimbabwe’s Mana Pools across the water. Home to around 50 mammal species and 400 birds, it boasts one of Africa’s healthiest elephant populations, plus vast buffalo herds and even wild dogs.

“The best trips I’ve ever heard clients describe are almost never the ones that produced the best content. They’re the holidays where something unexpected happened, or where they slowed down enough to actually be somewhere rather than passing through it. A photograph can capture a place. It cannot capture what it feels like to be unhurried in it,” Turner concludes.

Johannesburg – Business travel is holding its own, even as global conditions shift. New data from FCM Consulting’s inaugural hotel-focused research report shows that while the routine internal meetings that once generated high volumes of corporate trips have given way to more purposeful travel, demand into key markets, including London, Dubai and Johannesburg itself, remains strong.

FCM Consulting’s Insights Report 2026, released ahead of the global corporate hotel RFP season, reveals that hotel occupancy in major business hubs averaged 73.7% globally in 2025, up 1.3 percentage points on the prior year.

Key corporate cities tell a similar story: London held at 81.2%, a top destination for South African corporate travellers, while Sydney reached 81.5% occupancy (up 4.0 points), Singapore hit 79.2% (up 2.0), and Tokyo led the Asia-Pacific region at 82.9%.

Closer to home, Africa has seen the steepest price change globally, with a rolling 12-month average room rate (ARR) decline of 19.8% by late 2025. Bucking this trend? Johannesburg and Cairo with an ARR up 23.6% and 12% respectively in Q4 of 2025.

On the opposite end of the scale, cities where prices eased include Ghana (-42.2%), Ethiopia (-31.1%) and Kenya (-22.2%).

FCM Consulting reports that while corporate demand remains stable across the continent, it remains highly price-sensitive, with businesses shifting from premium tiers to 3- and 4-star properties, where monthly rates fell by up to 23%.

“Average daily rates can differ widely,” says Mummy Mafojane, GM of FCM South Africa. “As an example, Johannesburg, Cape Town, Nairobi, Cairo and Rabat were all up on 2024 rates – while Windhoek, Gaborone, Lagos and Luanda were all down year-on-year. South Africa was boosted by the G20, while North Africa (notably Egypt and Morocco) is seeing robust leisure tourism growth.”

For Mafojane, it requires targeted, proactive management as buyers head into RFP season.

“Where rates are softening, buyers have a genuine opportunity to consolidate volume and push for preferential corporate rates. Where rates are climbing, the focus has to shift to compliance and getting travellers to book further ahead, because that’s what protects the budget.”

Importantly, the global data reflects a fundamental change in how and why organisations travel. The report, authored by FCM Consulting’s global team of hotel programme specialists, finds that hybrid working has not killed business travel, it has made it more intentional, with teams coming together for client work, revenue conversations, project assignments and physical presence events.

• 77% of organisations say face-to-face meetings are essential to business objectives
• 73.7% global hotel occupancy in 2025 – up 1.3pts year-on-year
• 81.2% hotel occupancy in London, near multi-year highs
• 81.5% hotel occupancy in Sydney, up four points in a single year.

“Travel is now more focused on bringing people together with purpose, whether for client work, revenue generation, or internal alignment,” said Rachel Newns, Global Hotel Practice Lead, FCM Consulting. “The organisations recognising this are approaching the RFP season very differently from those still measuring success by reducing trip volumes.”

The research draws on data from managed travel programmes across the Americas, EMEA and Asia-Pacific, combining proprietary booking data with regional market analysis.

It finds travel patterns are diverging sharply by traveller type: sales teams prioritise location and consistency; project teams are making longer stays in fewer cities; and senior leaders expect a combination of reliability and discretion that legacy hotel programmes often fail to deliver.

“Hotel programmes tend to evolve gradually,” said Newns. “Suppliers change, targets move, policies are amended, yet the overall programme design can remain largely unchanged. Taking time to revisit its foundations often reveals where adjustments are needed.”

FCM Consulting’s data shows that contracted and consortia rates continue to deliver significant savings against the best available rate, with public rates fluctuating by up to USD$62 globally.

Fixed negotiated rates in high-demand markets provide meaningful protection – but only when programmes are actively managed, and travel patterns are understood at the city level rather than at the regional aggregate level.

The report also highlights a frequently underutilised lever in hotel programme management: corporate loyalty. Major hotel groups have continued to expand their loyalty ecosystems, and travellers holding status with preferred brands represent both a compliance risk and a genuine opportunity for buyers who manage it well.

Complimentary breakfast, lounge access and room upgrades can meaningfully improve the traveller experience at no incremental cost to the corporate account. The challenge is integrating loyalty strategically into programme design – and having frank, early conversations with suppliers about recognition and status support during transition planning. “Ultimately, internal scrutiny of spend has increased,” explains Mafojane. “In today’s climate, buyers are expected to show financial control, while ensuring hotel programmes support productivity, safety and traveller well-being.”

The same report shows that the average hotel stay was just four nights, a detail that speaks to how purposefully South Africans are travelling. Not staying longer in one place than they need to, and not willing to spend precious time away on an experience that only delivers part of what they came for.

This is the driving force behind one of the most significant shifts in South African travel behaviour: the rise of the combination holiday.

“The combination holiday is the structural answer to a problem South Africans have been solving informally for years, and the travel industry is finally building the infrastructure to match it,” says Antoinette Turner, General Manager, Flight Centre South Africa.

“South African travellers are increasingly clear about what they want from their time away: nature and luxury, culture and rest, adventure and connection. The combo holiday is the only format that actually delivers on all of those things at once,” she adds.

The industry catches up: Club Med South Africa Beach and Safari

The most visible sign yet that the hospitality industry has caught up with what Saffas have been asking for opens on the KwaZulu-Natal North Coast in July 2026.

Club Med South Africa Beach and Safari is unlike anything in Club Med’s global portfolio. A R2 billion investment anchoring 486 keys, a 500-seat convention centre, and an 18,000-hectare Big 5 game reserve with its own safari lodge – it’s the first Club Med in the world to combine beach and bush in a single guest journey.

What Club Med Beach and Safari represents, beyond its own considerable scale, is an industry acknowledgment that the combination holiday has arrived in earnest. The beach-and-safari experience that travellers (South African and international alike), have been piecing together across separate bookings for decades is now available in a single, seamlessly designed product. That is not a small thing, regardless of where you sit on the budget spectrum.

The combinations that deliver

Club Med Beach and Safari is the most dramatic example, but it’s far from the only one. Here are the four other popular combination types delivering the most complete travel experiences in 2026.

Beach and safari

Africa’s greatest travel pairing has historically required two separate trips or very careful logistical choreography. Beyond Club Med Beach and Safari, the combos that work best for South Africans include:

• Mozambique’s Bazaruto Archipelago paired with a Kruger or Madikwe extension: Warm Indian Ocean water and extraordinary marine biodiversity followed by the best game viewing on the continent.
• Kenya’s Diani Beach and the Masai Mara: Offering the same pairing, just a little bit further afield in East Africa.
• Zanzibar and a Tanzania safari: Pristine beaches and then the Serengeti (or vice versa) – plus a touch of culture and history thrown in thanks to Stone Town, too.

City and coast

The argument for this combo is psychological as much as geographical. A city break provides cultural stimulation and the sense of being fully alive in a place, but it rarely delivers the decompression that South African travellers are seeking. The coast provides that decompression, but it can feel passive without the stimulation of a great city. Together, they create a trip that satisfies both the curious and the exhausted.

• Singapore and Bali is the classic for South Africans heading east.
• Cape Town domestically.
• Lisbon and the Algarve for Europe.

Cruise and destination

The number one reason people choose to cruise is the ability to visit multiple destinations. Additionally, ocean cruising is rated the highest-satisfaction holiday type of any category surveyed, above all-inclusive resorts, resort packages, and land-based alternatives, according to the Cruise Lines International Association’s (CLIA) State of the Cruise Industry Report 2025. Globally, 34.6 million people cruised in 2024, a 9.3% increase on 2023, and CLIA forecasts 42 million passengers by 2028.

In South Africa, Flight Centre’s own Year in Travel 2025 data shows that 69% of South Africans are considering a cruise holiday. A remarkable figure that reflects both the growing awareness of what cruising offers and the particular appeal of its combination-holiday structure:

• A Mediterranean cruise paired with a few days in Rome or Barcelona before embarkation.
• An East African coastal cruise followed by a Zanzibar beach stay.
• A Cape Town to Durban coastal sailing with stops along the Garden Route.

The cruise provides the variety and ease, while the land experience (before or after) provides the depth and the sense of place that makes the whole trip that much more memorable.

Turner speaks passionately about how the cruise conversation has completely changed in South Africa:

“Cruising used to be seen as something for retirees, but we’re now seeing families, couples, solo travellers, and young travellers discovering that a cruise is actually the most efficient way to have a combination holiday and explore multiple destinations in a single trip. It’s also the most naturally multi-generational holiday format available. 28% of cruise travellers globally sail with three to five generations, making it a particularly compelling option for South African families.”

Bleisure

The fourth combination is the one most South Africans are already taking without calling it by name. Flight Centre’s Global PR Survey found that nearly two in three working South African travel intenders have combined or intend to combine business and leisure travel in the future, and South Africans lead every other market surveyed in having already made the leap, with 36% confirming they’ve done so.

• A business trip to London extended into a Cotswolds weekend.
• A conference in Singapore followed by four days in Bali.
• A corporate event in Nairobi with a Masai Mara add-on.

Ultimately, South African travellers are unwilling to settle for a trip that delivers only one thing when the opportunity to deliver more is right there.

Why combination holidays are more difficult to plan than they seem

The appeal of the combination holiday is obvious. The execution is less so.

Multi-component itineraries are more complex to plan, more dependent on correct sequencing and timing, and more exposed to disruption when one element fails. In the current travel environment, where routing options are shifting and flexibility in bookings matters more than it has in years, the combination holiday is also the format where the gap between a well-planned trip and a stressful one is widest.

This is precisely where expert guidance delivers its most tangible return. Flight Centre’s Global PR Survey found that 97% of South African travel intenders see value in using a travel agent. The reasons they give are telling: peace of mind if things change or go wrong at 62% and assistance with complex or multi-destination itineraries at 54%.

The CLIA data makes the same point from a different angle: 79% of cruise travellers say travel agents have a meaningful impact on their decision to cruise, and Net Promoter Scores, the standard measure of customer satisfaction, are consistently higher among cruise travellers who book through a professional travel advisor than those who book independently. Satisfaction, it turns out, is not just about the destination, but about how well the whole thing was put together.

The future of Saffa travel

Rather than becoming more demanding, South African travellers are becoming more deliberate.

“The combo holiday is the expression of that intentionality, and the travel industry, from Club Med’s extraordinary KZN opening to the global cruise boom now reaching South African shores, is finally building the experiences to match it. We look forward to seeing what’s next!” Turner concludes.

“That ‘make-a-plan’ mindset defines how we live, but also how we travel,” says Antoinette Turner, General Manager of Flight Centre South Africa. “Fuel costs have risen sharply, but the conversation happening around braais, and in family WhatsApp groups right now isn’t ‘should we go?’ It’s ‘how should we get there?’”

With the June/July school holidays approaching, the question of how to get there has become just as important as where to go. Here’s what savvy South Africans are considering in order to get themselves from A to B and back again.

Flying is still (often) the right answer

Despite fuel surcharges, flying remains the obvious and most practical choice for a significant number of trips where time is the deciding factor.

The enduring appetite for air travel speaks for itself. Even while operating a reduced schedule during peak Middle East disruption in March and April, Emirates carried 4.7 million passengers. As of May, the airline has returned to near-full operations, with 96% of its global network restored.

“Flying remains the appropriate choice for older travellers, families with young children, or anyone for whom a long road journey presents genuine challenges. Convenience aside, sometimes it’s just the right call,” Turner adds.

“The drive from Johannesburg to Cape Town clocks in at around 1,400 kilometres and between 14 to 16 hours behind the wheel. Factor in fatigue, fuel, tolls, a night’s accommodation en route, and the return trip, and that R16,000* FlySafair return fare for a family of four starts to feel less like a splurge and more like a sensible call.” 

Good to know: Fares remain reasonable when booked in advance or outside peak windows. Off-peak domestic routes still offer good value, and locking in international flights early means protecting your budget against potential currency fluctuations.

*Estimate based on June/July flight pricing at the time of writing in May 2026.

When the road trip deserves consideration

There are, however, scenarios where the economics of driving have shifted enough to warrant genuine consideration, not as a consolation prize, but as a legitimately rewarding travel option.

The clearest case is the large family or group travelling a moderate distance, where the per-person cost of road travel drops significantly while the per-person cost of flying climbs. “The road trip is sometimes cheaper, sometimes comparable, and occasionally more expensive than flying. It depends on the group, the vehicle, the route, and the timing,” explains Turner.

Beyond the budget, there’s something else to consider: the journey itself. South Africa’s road network connects some of the most spectacular scenery on the continent, such as the Garden Route (ranked the number one road trip in the world by AutoTrader), the Panorama Route through Mpumalanga, and the mountain passes of the Western Cape, especially as the floral season kicks off from mid-August.

“These aren’t distances to be endured. For the right family, with the right attitude, and enough time, the road trip is the holiday,” Turner adds.

If you’re wondering what’s happening at the pumps in June, the picture is a mixed one. Diesel drivers are looking at a likely price drop, with mid-month data from the Central Energy Fund showing an over-recovery of up to R4.41 per litre on wholesale diesel. For a family covering 1,400 kilometres in a fuel-efficient diesel vehicle, that’s a meaningful saving.

Petrol drivers, however, are facing the opposite: a fourth consecutive monthly increase, with the combined effect of an under-recovery and the partial reversal of temporary fuel levy relief pointing to a rise of around R1.65 per litre or more. A wildcard remains the slate levy, introduced in May at R1.23 per litre and subject to adjustment in June, which could push petrol prices even higher.

The bottom line is that if your road trip vehicle runs on diesel, June’s pricing could actually work in your favour, but if it runs on petrol, it’s worth building some extra budget cushion into your travel plans.

The fly-drive option

If the choice between flying and driving feels like a binary one, there’s a compelling third option combining the best of both: the fly-drive.

“Fly the long haul to save time, then hire a fuel-efficient car at your destination to unlock the freedom and flexibility that aviation can’t offer,” advises Turner. “It’s a model that we champion for international itineraries, and it translates just as well for domestic travel,” she says.

Think flying into Durban and spending a week self-driving the KwaZulu-Natal coast and Midlands. Or arriving in Windhoek and traversing Namibia’s Skeleton Coast by rented 4×4.

Good to know: All-inclusive resorts and safari lodges help keep costs low. With activities included, there’s little need to leave once you fly in.

“When all the variables are accounted for, a road trip can be genuinely brilliant or genuinely expensive depending entirely on how you plan it. The mistake is assuming one option is always cheaper than the other without crunching the numbers,” Turner says.

“Savvy South Africans know that the best journey isn’t necessarily the fastest or the cheapest one. It’s the one that fits your family, your budget, and your time and that you actually feel good about,” she concludes.

The survey revealed that South African travel intenders lead the field on nearly every metric that matters:

• Trust in travel agents sits at 97%.
• 83% say travel is essential to their mental health and wellbeing.
• 62% are actively pursuing luxury travel.

“South Africa is one of the world’s most economically pressured consumer markets, and yet it carries one of the deepest relationships with travel of any country we surveyed,” says Antoinette Turner, General Manager at Flight Centre South Africa. “It is also one of the most under-researched.”

Turner argues that travel is not a discretionary reward for South Africans. Rather, it’s considered a necessity and a form of identity, and in many cases a deliberate act of resistance against difficult circumstances.

Here’s what Flight Centre’s latest data reveals about how South Africans want to experience the world.

Travel planning with intention

South Africans are actually among the most open to AI tools for travel planning of any market surveyed, and yet 97% still see value in using a human travel agent. In this market, technology and expertise coexist rather than compete.

“The data reflects a traveller who thinks carefully about where they go and who wants to feel cared for when they go. This traveller plans accordingly and has no interest in compromising on the experience. The relationship with a travel agent is genuinely valued in a way that’s quite different from other markets,” comments Turner.

Resourceful by necessity

96% of South African survey respondents are looking to make travel more affordable, and they’re doing it methodically by booking well in advance, hunting for package deals, and choosing budget airlines when they have to. They’re also, at 77%, among the most likely to have combined, or be open to combining, business and leisure travel.

What explains it? Partly geography, according to Turner. “South Africa sits far from most of the world’s major travel corridors, which means getting anywhere takes planning, money, and commitment. There’s no casual weekend trip to Paris or Rome. When South Africans travel, they mean it,” she says.

The 2027 Rugby World Cup in Australia is already on the radar for many South African fans, and with Qantas operating direct flights from Johannesburg to Sydney (just over 12 hours) and both Qantas and SAA offering direct flights to Perth (just under 10 hours), the tournament has never been more accessible.

“South Africans are incredibly resourceful when it comes to making travel happen. Australia is still a long-haul, and traditionally expensive destination, but many South Africans are determined to get there anyway,” Turner adds.

Luxury, wellness, and slow travel

Although South Africans are the most likely of any market to travel during off-peak seasons (49%), they’re also amongst the most likely to prioritise luxury experiences, displaying an appetite for slow and restful travel (86%), food and gastronomy (83%), eco-tourism (76%), nature (67%), and spending time with partners and family (66%).

LATAM Airlines’ direct flight from South Africa to São Paulo, Brazil, launching in September 2026, matches this appetite well, bringing visa-free travel within easy reach without a stopover.

“We’ve always known that our customers here are deeply committed to travel. But seeing it quantified, and seeing how it compares globally, does make you look at this market differently,” Turner adds. “South African travellers think carefully about what they want, cherish what they choose, and deserve more credit than they get,” she concludes.