Report: Consumer perspectives South Africa – Travel

The travel sector is undergoing a major growth period in South Africa. More accessible options and experiences, coupled with a post-COVID resurgence and desire to explore, has led more and more people to choose to spend their money on experiences.

Research from travel intelligence group Skift showed a 31% year-on-year jump in domestic tourism in South Africa, while analysis from Airbnb found that 7 of the 10 fastest-growing destinations in the nation were outside of the primary tourist areas of the Western Cape and Gauteng.

As the sector grows, consumers are continuing to travel for both business and leisure. We conducted a survey of over 300 South Africans across a range of age and income cohorts to understand their perspective on online travel booking, including their plans for future travel, how they choose a booking platform, how they prefer to pay and what they expect from the travel experience.

Download our report to see our full findings below.

South Africans overwhelmingly plan to increase their travel over the coming year

Across all age brackets, South Africans plan to travel more in the coming year than they did in the last year. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the younger cohorts demonstrated the strongest desire to travel more, but even in the 50+ age category more than 81% said they would travel more in the coming year - an extremely positive outlook for the travel sector.

This is underpinned by a desire to see more of the world that was strengthened post-pandemic. Many of our respondents directly attributed their desire to travel more to impacts from COVID.

Payments are the keystone of a positive booking experience

Respondents said that the most decisive factor in what makes a positive or negative booking experience was a fast and easy payment process. This ranked above trustworthy reviews, clear pricing or even helpful customer service.

This also reflects a trend we saw with our other surveys - as more spending moves online, people are prioritising fast, easy and secure payment experiences when choosing where to shop. Robust payments are especially important for travel bookings, which are more susceptible to delays and cancellations than other types of purchases.

A large proportion of people have used Buy Now Pay Later to fund travel

A little over 40% of respondents said they had used Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) when booking travel, though responses indicated it is used infrequently.

Adoption is closely correlated with income. Usage rates were lower among the lowest-earning cohort, with those earning less than 5,999 per month reporting never having used BNPL, while 50% of those in the highest-earning cohort reporting at least some usage.

Explore more findings

What are the most popular booking platforms across all travel booking needs? How much are consumers spending on travel booking? What do consumers look for when choosing a booking platform?

Read our full report for more.