A History of Support and Good Faith

From the outset, SATSA has been supportive of the Minister when she assumed office, and of Nombulelo Guliwe when she was appointed CEO of South African Tourism. We saw these milestones as an opportunity to reset and strengthen the foundations of the sector. We embraced the chance for constructive collaboration, with optimism that a genuine partnership built on trust, accountability, and shared vision could unlock growth for tourism and deliver lasting benefits to South Africa. Our stance was never oppositional; it was grounded in good faith, professionalism, and a clear commitment to serve the industry and the country.

To understand the seriousness of the current situation, it is important to reflect on the history of the Boards that have served under the Minister’s tenure, and the path that has led us here.

Timeline of South African Tourism Board Appointments (2023–2025)

• 7 March 2023: Patricia de Lille appointed Minister of Tourism.
• April 2023: Mass resignation of eight Board members, including the Chairperson, left the Board inquorate. On 21 April, the Minister dissolved the Board by notice in the Government Gazette and appointed three interim members: Ms Kholeka Zama (who was reappointed in the new interim structure of 22 August 2025), Mr Tim Harris, and Mr Vincent Zwelibanzi Mntambo.
• 28 February 2024: Cabinet approved the appointment of a new 10-member Board, as well as the appointment of Ms Guliwe as CEO for a five-year term. These appointments were subsequently Gazetted.
• 3–9 September 2024: The Minister raised concerns about Board meeting costs and removed the Chairperson and Deputy Chairperson from their roles.
• September 2024: At this time, SATSA CEO David Frost recommended Oupa Pilane for the role of Chairperson, noting his extensive experience chairing the SATSA Board and previously the Kruger Lowveld Tourism Board. Despite these credentials, the Minister appointed Prof Gregory Davids as Chairperson, an academic with no substantive board or tourism industry experience. No Deputy Chair was appointed.
• 27 September 2024: A new Board was constituted. This was not an inherited Board but one of the Minister’s own choosing.
• April 2025: An independent forensic report was tabled, undertaken on the instruction of the previous Board, following the Auditor-General’s findings in 2024. Acting within its 90-day timeframe, as per labour law guidelines, the now dissolved Board considered this report, which directly implicated the CEO in alleged irregular spending.
• 17 July 2025: Following several failed interventions with the Chairperson, and after raising this matter as a concern with the Minister (with no response), the Board passed a Vote of No Confidence against the Chairperson, Prof Gregory Davids, and unanimously voted for his resignation. The Minister failed to appoint either a new Chairperson or an Acting Chairperson despite being asked to do so by the Board. It is important to note that the interim Board appointed this past week (22 August 2025) includes both a Chairperson and a Deputy Chair.
• 13 August 2025: The Board ultimately took the difficult but necessary step of suspending the CEO, based on the independent forensic report findings and allegations of unfair labour practices.
• 19 August 2025: Rather than support the Board’s lawful and justifiable actions, the Minister dissolved it, citing an alleged meeting on 1 August, a claim the Board categorically denied. Unlike the 2023 dissolution, this decision has not been Gazetted, raising further concerns about due process.

The Board’s Fiduciary Duties

Despite repeated obstacles, the Board carried out its fiduciary responsibilities with diligence and integrity. It acted transparently and kept the Minister informed.

It is our clear legal interpretation that a Board can continue to perform its fiduciary duties provided there is a quorum, regardless of whether a Chair is in place. Acting within this mandate, the Board pursued the appropriate course of action.

Rather than support these steps towards accountability, the Minister dissolved the Board on a baseless and spurious technicality, citing the alleged 1 August meeting. She has since attempted to portray the Board as acting in a destabilising manner, which is implausible.

Good Governance

The Minister’s actions reveal a deeply troubling and sustained pattern of ministerial overreach, interference, and inconsistency. By refusing to appoint a Deputy Chair (which she is mandated to do under the Tourism Act), she deliberately weakened the Board’s governance capacity and undermined its ability to carry out fiduciary duties. By dissolving the Board without Gazetting the decision, she not only sidestepped due process but also acted outside the bounds of established legal and governance frameworks.

By blocking South African Tourism from participating in international trade shows until a return-on-investment study is completed, a task that properly falls within the mandate of the Board and its executives and not the Minister, she has jeopardised South Africa’s credibility, competitiveness, and standing in the global market. Such actions are not merely procedural lapses; they represent a direct threat to good governance and to the economic prospects of the tourism sector. An example of how this is already playing out is South Africa’s absence from the International Golf Travel Market this October. It sends a damaging signal to global buyers that South Africa is closed for business in a lucrative niche where competitors such as Portugal, Spain, Turkey, and Mauritius are aggressively building market share.

Our Position

SATSA stands firmly behind the dissolved Board members, our colleagues, peers, and industry leaders, who acted with competence, integrity, and a genuine commitment to South Africa. These are individuals of the highest calibre, motivated not by politics or malice but by service to our industry and country.

We urge the Minister to reverse her decision, to desist from political interference, and to restore stability by allowing the Board and executives of South African Tourism to carry out their responsibilities. We fully support the Board’s right to pursue legal recourse and believe this step is justified and necessary.

Conclusion

Taking this stance is not easy. Yet SATSA has always stood for truth and accountability, as we did in past battles on the red list, unabridged birth certificates, and visa regulations.

This crisis is not of the Board’s making, nor of TBCSA’s, nor of SATSA’s. It rests squarely with the Minister’s actions. The perception is that in choosing to protect one individual at the expense of governance and trust, she risks doing irreparable damage to the very fabric of our sector.

SATSA remains resolute in its commitment to transparency, accountability, and the protection of South African tourism. We stand behind the Board, our people, until this matter is resolved.

The long-awaited appointment of the board and CEO are an important step forward in the growth of South Africa’s tourism industry, which is a key driver of job creation and economic growth in South Africa, says FEDHASA National Chair, Rosemary Anderson.

“We have been particularly encouraged by the Minister and Interim Board’s commitment to private-sector collaboration. The tourism industry is a complex ecosystem, and we can only achieve our full potential by working together. We are confident that the new board and CEO will be strong advocates for the industry and will work closely with us to develop and implement effective strategies to grow tourism,” Anderson adds.

FEDHASA is particularly interested in working with the new SA Tourism leadership on the following priorities:

• Marketing South Africa as a preferred tourist destination: We need a targeted and effective marketing campaign that showcases the uniqueness of our country to the world.
• Improving the visitor experience: We must work together to ensure that all visitors to South Africa have a positive and memorable experience. This includes improving visa processing times, enhancing their safety, and improving air access.
• Growing domestic tourism: The domestic tourism market is a vital source of revenue for the hospitality sector, and we need to do more to encourage South Africans to travel within their own country.
• Creating jobs: The tourism industry is a major job creator, particularly for the youth and women. Only by working together will we be able to create more opportunities for unemployed South Africans.

“FEDHASA is confident that the new SA Tourism leadership shares FEDHASA’s priorities and is committed to focussing on these in collaboration with the private sector. We look forward to working with them to make the tourism industry an even greater success story for South Africa,” Anderson concludes.

Ends

About FEDHASA 

Founded in 1949, a restructured and transformed FEDHASA (Federated Hospitality Association of South Africa) is recognised by Government as the official representative of the hospitality industry of South Africa. With industry support, FEDHASA remains the umbrella association for hotels, restaurants, conference centres, caterers, self-catering accommodation, home hosting establishments (B&Bs and guest houses), clubs, taverns, shebeens, suppliers and trainers, consultants and service providers to the hospitality industry. For more information, visit https://fedhasa.co.za/  

For media enquiries, please contact:

Celine Patterson

celine@bigambitions.co.za      

Tel: +27 71 899 3780

The UK government announced on Thursday, 25 November, that South Africa, Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Namibia and Zimbabwe will move onto the red list at 12.00 midday Friday 26 November. There will be a temporary ban on all direct commercial and private flights from these countries from 12.00 midday Friday 26 November to 04h00 Sunday 28 November while the UK government reassesses the situation.

Anyone arriving in the UK from South Africa before 4am on Sunday 28 November, needs to quarantine at home or at alternative accommodation. After 4am Sunday 28 November, South Africans will once again need to quarantine in a managed hotel. They will need to book a quarantine hotel package, including 2 COVID-19 tests, before they arrive in England.

“It’s Groundhog Day for the South African travel industry. The new ban is a knee-jerk reaction of the UK government that puts airlines, hotels, travel businesses and travellers in a very difficult situation,” says Otto de Vries, CEO ASATA.

“The world will, unfortunately, need to learn to live with COVID variants for the foreseeable future. While we await more clarity, there is currently no scientific evidence that the new variant is more resistant to the vaccine. COVID vaccines are in fact the most effective way to protect yourself against the virus, as they significantly reduce the risk of serious illness, long COVID and COVID transmissibility.”

Infectious disease expert Professor Marc Mendelson agrees and says there is nothing to indicate at this stage that the protection COVID-19 vaccines offer will change in the face of the latest variant. “COVID-19 vaccines have proven themselves extremely robust against all SARS-CoV-2 variants to date.”

Professor Shabir A. Madhi, Dean: Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of the Witwatersrand, adds the world needs to accept that breakthrough infections will continue to occur. “The sooner we come to accept this, the sooner we can recalibrate how to move forward.”

Important to keep in mind, according to Madhi is that breakthrough infections are less infectious. For example, it is 60% less likely to transmit Delta when vaccinated. The risk of developing long COVID is also greatly reduced.

Says Madhi: “Vaccines are primarily about preventing severe disease. In the case of the new B1.1.529, we should learn from what transpired with the Beta variant, which also showed resistance to vaccine-induced antibodies. Nevertheless, the vaccine still conferred high protection against severe COVID.”

The Beta variant, which was first identified in South Africa in December 2020, has not gained any meaningful presence outside South Africa owing to its low transmissibility and the effectiveness of vaccines against it. Of the four major variants of concern identified by the World Health Organisation, Beta has the lowest transmissibility advantage (25%) over the ancestral Covid variant that originated in China. By comparison, the Delta variant is 95% more transmissible, and now accounts for over 96% of all genomes sequenced in South Africa in the latest data issued by the National Institute of Clinical Diseases (NICD).

Early small-scale studies of the Beta variant indicated a potential vaccine evasion risk, but these fears have been disproved in larger real-world research such as that released by the Canadian Immunization Network in July 2021, which revealed that a single dose of the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine conferred an 82% protection against severe disease and death from Beta. Protection that was estimated to rise to 95% on delivery of a second dose, comparable to all the major vaccines deployed in the US and Europe. AstraZeneca endorsed the research announcing that its vaccine provided “good to excellent protection” against the Beta variant.

Following the rapid decline in its overall infection rates since July and the dominance of the Delta variant in South Africa, most European countries have now removed travel restrictions for South Africa for fully vaccinated travellers and regular flights to Johannesburg and Cape Town have been re-established. The UK remains a notable exception, with visitors from South Africa obligated to stay in a government-appointed hotel where they must quarantine for 10 days at their own cost.

David Frost, CEO of the South African Tourism Services Association (SATSA), said:

“South Africa’s infection rate is now tracking at a sixth of the UK’s and below key destinations on the UK’s amber travel list, such as the US, France, Germany and Greece. The only variant of concern circulating in South Africa is Delta – the same as the UK, and we have the best testing and sequencing capabilities on the African continent. There is absolutely no scientific basis on which the UK can continue to maintain its travel ban on South Africa, and on behalf of the 1.5 million people who rely on the South African tourism sector for work, we are now calling for an urgent review of the available data by UK authorities.”

Emile Stipp, Chief Health Actuary for Discovery Limited, South Africa’s leading medical insurance provider, said:

“Beta has effectively disappeared in South Africa, and with an estimated 70-80% of South Africans already exposed to the virus, the accelerating vaccine programme will only build on what is now a formidable level of community protection against the Delta variant now currently in circulation.”

South Africa fulfils the Government’s criteria to be moved onto the amber list, as set out by the Joint Biosecurity Centre:

COVID-19 transmission risk

• South Africa’s infection rate is in rapid decline and is already less than a quarter of the UK’s and tracking well below the US and most EU countries on the amber list such as France, Greece, Portugal, Belgium and the Netherlands.

Variant transmission risk

• The Beta variant, which was mistakenly believed to evade vaccines, is now non-existent in South Africa. The Delta variant makes up the vast overwhelming majority of cases, just as in the UK. Likewise, recent fears over a new variant (C.1.2) have been significantly exaggerated, as it is now in decline, representing less than 1.5% of recent cases.

Genomic surveillance capability

• South Africa is a world leader in genomic sequencing, with some of the leading experts working in the country. They currently rank 23rd in the country rankings of most genomes sequenced per week, and 1st in Africa.

Antibody rates

• It is now reliably estimated that 70-80% of people in South Africa have had the virus, compared to 18% in the UK. This means that South Africa has amongst the highest levels of naturally acquired immunity of any country in the world
• Although the Joint Biosecurity Centre has removed local vaccination rates as a primary criteria in its risk methodology, South Africa is further augmenting its antibody levels through a vaccine programme which is inoculating over 1m people every week.

Young population

• South Africa’s median age is 17 versus 40 in the UK, which means South Africa has already achieved high levels of protection in its at-risk group of 60+ years and is now offering vaccines to all over 18s.

Most EU countries as well as the US and Canada have followed the data and reopened travel with South Africa. The isolationist policy of the UK risks squandering the competitive advantage with a region that will define the latter half of this century. If ‘Global Britain’ is to be anything more than a slogan, the UK needs to be present on the international stage.

A growing group in the UK has recognised the injustice of South Africa’s red listing, with more than 32,000 signing a petition for South Africa to be removed from the red list.

In a joint statement, Ben Bradshaw MP, Lord Oates and Baroness Chalker said, “The evidence clearly points to South Africa being removed from the red list. If the UK Government wants to retain the integrity of its traffic light system, it must reward countries which empirically demonstrate they are safe by granting them amber status.”

David Frost, CEO of SATSA the voice of inbound travel to South Africa representing 1350 businesses said, “Every week the UK keeps South Africa on its red list it erodes the vital economic and environmental ties between our two countries. Long after the threat from the pandemic fades, memories of Britain’s duplicity will endure.”

Delta Airlines is marking its 15^th year of nonstop service from South Africa by scheduling its state-of-the-art Airbus A350-900neo on flights between Johannesburg and Atlanta when the route resumes effective 2 August 2021. The service, first launched by Delta on 4 December 2006, will initially operate three times weekly, offering customers a choice of 150 destinations across the United States via Delta’s largest hub.

“We are proud of our airline’s 15-year history in South Africa and excited that Delta’s restart between  Johannesburg and the U.S. is with our flagship aircraft, offering customers an enhanced onboard experience wherever they sit,” said Amy Martin, Delta’s Managing Director – Network Planning. “As well as offering more onboard comfort combined with the great service customers can expect from Delta, the aircraft is 25% more fuel-efficient than the Boeing 777 it replaces, helping reduce carbon emissions on our longest route.”

Featuring all four Delta cabin experiences, highlights of the new A350 for customers flying between Johannesburg and Atlanta include:

• Delta One Suites – a personalized experience, with a full-height door for enhanced privacy and comfort, each suite features a fully flat-bed seat with direct aisle access

• Delta Premium Select – more personal space, wider seats with more legroom and recline, adjustable leg and head rests and an elevated onboard service

• Delta Comfort+ – a seat at the front of Main Cabin, with allocated overhead storage for carry-on items

• High-resolution in-seat entertainment screens and personal power ports for every customer, optional access to high-speed 2Ku Wi-Fi connectivity, plus free mobile messaging

• Larger windows with optimized cabin pressure, temperature and humidity and ambient lighting to help customers feel refreshed and ready to go after a long-haul flight

• For meal service, Delta offers uniquely crafted menu items that reflect regional flavors. All customers will receive a choice of entrée alongside an appetizer and dessert in addition to a full bar selection or soft drink. Customers traveling in Delta One can pre-order their meal choice on flights between South Africa and the U.S. and can look forward to favourites such as Peri Peri chicken or grilled prawns with jasmine rice

Delta’s nonstop flights between Johannesburg and Atlanta are conveniently scheduled as night-time departures. Thanks to Delta’s extensive network from its Atlanta hub, customers can fly one-stop from South Africa to cities including Los Angeles, Washington D.C., Miami and New York-JFK, arriving in time for lunch the next day. Entry to the U.S. from South Africa remains restricted except for U.S. citizens and permanent residents. Those eligible to travel can also connect via Delta’s European hubs in Amsterdam, London and Paris in conjunction with joint venture partners Air France, KLM and Virgin Atlantic, while onward connections are available in South Africa and beyond in conjunction with local partners.

More information on which destinations are open to leisure travelers and where Delta is flying are available via the Delta Discover Map on delta.com. Customers are encouraged to review entry requirements for their destination, including whether a vaccination certificate or negative COVID-19 test is required, prior to travel.

“We are excited to welcome Delta back to South Africa. North America is a key market for us and we are confident that this Delta non-stop flight will boost South Africa’s efforts to grow business and leisure tourists’ arrivals out of this market,” said Acting CEO of South African Tourism, Sthembiso Dlamini.

“South Africa is a country rich in history and vibrant culture and very warm people. South Africans are ready to welcome back visitors from across the world and we are definitely open for business. We look forward to many years of success on this route, as we continue to share the variety of experiences with all travelers.”

Delta’s service between Johannesburg and Atlanta will operate as follows:

Delta prioritizes the health and safety of customers and employees and the communities it serves. In addition to safer travel as part of the Delta CareStandard, all customers flying between South Africa and the U.S. will enjoy hundreds of new in-flight entertainment options on personal seat-back screens. Delta’s award-winning customer experience also includes touchless technology via the Fly Delta app.

“As an industry, we are not insensitive to the fact that South Africa is enduring a third wave, and that too many have lost their lives, have lost loved ones or wait anxiously as family and friends endure severe illness,” says Rosemary Anderson, FEDHASA National Chair.

“Balancing lives and livelihoods is an impossible task and we understand that sacrifices have to be made. However, hotels and restaurants are not just a non-essential lifestyle activity that can be switched on and off to stem the spread of COVID.

“Behind the closed restaurant doors and ‘for sale’ signs are thousands of livelihoods that have already been lost and hang in the balance everyday restaurants are forced to bear the brunt of lockdown regulations. Beyond this, the hospitality sector supports a deep supply chain that is similarly affected,” she says.

Unlike most other sectors, the hospitality sector has not been able to operate fully, even when regulations were at Level 1. This, despite putting in place stringent health and hygiene protocols.

There are not many businesses that would be able to support livelihoods and pay their normal bills when they have not managed to operate normally for more than a year through no fault of their own.

“As an industry, we have made every effort to keep staff and guests safe when they visit hotels and restaurants. Our sector has had very little relief and has been ignored, even targeted by some landlords and financial institutions, which have been inflexible and immovable by the limitations within which the hospitality sector has been forced to operate in for over a year,” Anderson adds.

Lobbying on behalf of its members, FEDHASA has partnered with the Sukuma Fund to make R100 million available for rental and cashflow relief for qualifying FEDHASA-registered restauranteurs. The organisation recognises that this is a mere drop in the ocean.

“We believe landlords and banks must do the right thing, come to the party and show some flexibility for hospitality stakeholders who in the short-term are experiencing a cashflow crunch. It does not bode well, not in terms of reputation or future support from hospitality companies, for these organisations to turn their back on their hospitality customers. Further, it is in their best interests to help secure the future of these businesses.”

FEDHASA welcomes the announcement that vaccinations will open for the 35 to 49 age group on 1 August. Until vaccinations are rolled out robustly and the healthcare system strengthened, the hospitality sector will likely continue to see restrictions and be impacted by continuing surges of COVID limiting operations.

“When South Africa moved into Level 5 restrictions last year, which included the total shutdown of the hospitality sector, Government said that these measures were instituted to give the health services infrastructure the opportunity to ready themselves to be able to cope with the pandemic. We have had 16 months to ready ourselves for the reality of COVID waves, and for the hospitality sector, we are right back to where it all started. Every day we dither on earnest vaccine roll-out means more restaurants face closure and more people lose their livelihoods.”

FEDHASA calls on the Government to reconsider extending the current restrictions on allowing sit-down restaurants to operate as the impact of the extension will be devastating for those restauranteurs and their suppliers who have managed to hang on until now in the absence of real financial relief, as has been extended to this affected sector in other countries.

“We also call on South Africans to do everything they can to act responsibly, adhere to the non-pharmaceutical protocols and consume alcohol responsibly, so that as an industry we can operate, albeit with limitations, safely. If we bar our hospitality sector from making a living, the poverty pandemic will dwarf the effects of the COVID pandemic for many whose savings and livelihoods have been decimated.

“It is a hospitality bloodbath out there, with no support systems to fall back on,” concludes Anderson.

This comes as STA Travel announced its global closure on 24^th August. While the agency was not a member of the association, ASATA confirms that, broadly, the industry as a whole has made every effort to assist customers to reschedule their travels with little to no compensation since the travel ban was implemented in March, as international outbound travel remains closed.

“We appreciate the Government’s efforts to implement a risk-adjusted and phased approach to reopening international travel and tourism. However, in order for the industry to survive this difficult time, a definite date for the reopening of international travel is imperative,” says Otto de Vries, ASATA CEO.

A definite date for international travel would allow sufficient time for airlines to plan the reintroduction of flight schedules to South Africa. Travel agents and tour operators would be able to start compiling travel packages for the safe return of travellers to international corporate and leisure travel. To that end, the travel industry has contributed to the Tourism Business Council of South Africa’s stringent health and safety protocols.

While the travel industry awaits the reopening of international travel, ASATA highlights that refunds remain a particular challenge for travel agents. “In many cases, travel agents, as intermediaries between the end customer and supplier, have been unable to recover monies from end suppliers (the airline, hotel, etc.), while they are expected to refund the customer. This has put the travel agent in an unenviable position.”

In a recovery scenario for the travel industry, de Vries explains we can expect to see significant changes. ASATA travel agents may choose to work only with those suppliers that offer assurances in terms of safety and hygiene protocols, as well as assurances in terms of flexible booking and cancellation policies. Meanwhile, travellers are expected to rely more than ever on the knowledge, expertise and service of a trusted travel advisor.

“Our role as the travel industry is to guide travellers to feel confident once again about their travels. Nothing is more important now for travellers than knowing they can reach out to an expert who can answer their questions with confidence so that they can travel with peace of mind,” concludes de Vries.

The announcement this week that South Africa would be instituting Level 2 on 18 August 2020 is welcome news for many industries which have been crippled by the lockdown regulations limiting their operations.

This is no more evident than in the Tourism sector, which was amongst the first and hardest hit of all industries and will likely be the last to be reopened fully.

The announcement that inter-provincial leisure travel will now be allowed will provide a much-needed lifeline for tourism businesses which have been amongst the hardest hit by the impact of COVID-19 since even before the lockdown in South Africa. Even with the small reopening of intra-provincial domestic leisure travel, we have already seen that there is pent-up demand for tourism and travel.

Last week, online accommodation booking system provider, NightsBridge, confirmed it had recorded some 9,389 bookings across 2,646 properties for the past long weekend, with the Western Cape receiving most of the benefit.   

NightsBridge Managing Director Theresa Emerick, says that for establishments in many other provinces, especially Mpumalanga, North West and Limpopo, inter-provincial leisure travel would need to be opened up to provide a lifeline for accommodation providers who are reliant on the domestic market from Gauteng.

“Although we only received 38% of last year’s travel volume back over the comparable weekend, there was certainly a sharp spike in bookings since the official announcement that intra-provincial leisure travel was allowed. The next steps to the reopening of the sector is inter-provincial leisure travel, which many accommodation providers in provinces surrounding Gauteng desperately need for their survival,” says Emerick.

Assessing forward bookings for South Africa’s high season, NightsBridge reports about a third of bookings (25,630) have been made for December 2020 to February 2021 versus the same point last year which saw 77,175 bookings for December 2019 to February 2020.

Travel Safe – Eat Safe

Driving demand is the commitment by tourism providers across the value chain to ensure the safety and wellbeing of guests and staff. To this end, the Tourism Business Council of South Africa (TBCSA) has launched its Travel Safe – Eat Safe Certification Programme incorporating a robust set of tourism protocols that have received the World Travel and Tourism Council’s (WTTC) stamp of approval.

The stamp will allow customers to recognise businesses in South Africa which have already adopted world-class health and hygiene protocols for safe travel, indicating our readiness as a travel destination for both domestic and international guests.

“The Flight Centre Travel Group welcomes the announcement that intra-provincial leisure travel is permitted,” says Andrew Stark, Managing Director Flight Centre Travel Group Middle East and Africa. “Allowing leisure travellers the opportunity to travel within their province is a positive move in the right direction.” 

Stark hopes that the new regulations will encourage South Africans to start travelling again. The Group is focusing strongly on domestic travel, South Africa for South Africans, for the next two years. 

“We are proud to launch our Homegrown Holidays collection, which is uniquely designed to meet the current needs of South Africans wishing to travel domestically,” says Sue Garrett, Flight Centre Travel Group’s General Manager for Product and Marketing. “We want South Africans to get outside and explore our beautiful country. The Homegrown Holidays collection gives them the type of product and assurance they’re looking for to make this happen.”  

Garrett expects local travellers to start dipping their toes into the water with short overnight stays followed by longer road trips and getaways within their province, and later when regulations allow, South Africa as a whole. 

“It’s the year of the self-drive road trip and truly experiential travel,” says Garrett. “Homegrown Holidays is designed to meet this desire, giving travellers the product to quickly and safely enjoy holidays that hark back to their childhood or younger days. Think local and regional microcations (holidays shorter than five nights), off the beaten path experiences, hiking weekends, glamping and camping – and even the nostalgia of train travel. 

“Millions of international travellers visit South Africa each year and fall in love with our country. Now is our chance to be re-inspired. Travel is no longer about the destination alone. Experiential travel that allows us to truly connect meaningfully with our country, ourselves and others is the driving force behind post-COVID travel. The Homegrown Holidays collection reimagines our fondest holiday memories, rediscovering the simple joy of taking to the open road. We don’t need to travel overseas to have amazing experiences.”

A recent survey conducted by the Flight Centre Travel Group on their platforms showed that 7,546 respondents are ready to travel again, even within their province. 59% of travellers said they would travel within their province, 20% said no, with another 20% saying they would if the deal was good enough. Interestingly, 43% of the respondents lived in Gauteng, followed by 23% in Cape Town and 18% in KwaZulu-Natal.

Ideal local travel destinations or experiences saw beach holidays topping the list, followed by bush breaks, the Garden Route, then mountain adventures and exploring a city. Somewhat surprisingly, only 10% opted for a camping holiday.

While the majority of travellers would feel comfortable staying in self-catering accommodation, hotel and lodge stays were not far behind. 

The survey data showed that 43% would be comfortable travelling internationally with 44% voting for travelling within South Africa.

“Although 43% of survey respondents say they would like to travel internationally, it is likely restrictions, regulations and an economic downturn will affect outbound travel,” adds Stark. “We have put in a lot of hard work to create a product that caters to the needs of the South African wishing to explore our country right now.”

Homegrown Holidays comprises of domestic self-drive travel packages, often including self-catering accommodation, national park stays and lodges, as well as a mix of hotels and smaller accommodation establishments.  

The Homegrown Holiday collection includes:

• Visiting historic Graaff Reinet
• Camping in the Augrabies Falls National Park
• Road trips to the mountain hamlet of Hogsback
• Glamping in the Kruger National Park
• The Golden Gate National Park, with combos including Bloemfontein and Clarens
• Nine- to ten-night road trips exploring KZN’s coastal route from north to south
• The ultimate South African road trip experience, exploring the timeless Garden Route
• The Eastern Cape’s unspoiled Sunshine Coast
• Kokerboom Food and Wine Route in the Northern Cape and the national parks of the Northern Cape

We know that customer confidence is at an all-time low and that clients need assurance and peace of mind when booking any holiday,” says Garrett. “To this end, we’ve just launched our Moneyback Guarantee, allowing customers the flexibility to cancel their booking more than 24 hours prior to check-in. All customers need to do is contact their travel expert, in writing 24 hours before intended check in date, and we will refund immediately – no questions asked.”

“From the beginning, when the first Flight Centre store opened in South Africa 25 years ago, our purpose was to open South Africa to the world and to help South Africans travel. Now this is our focus more than ever – opening South Africa for all South Africans to explore,” concludes Stark. 

View the Homegrown Holidays collection here. To book or for more information, contact your nearest Flight Centre store or shop online here.