How South African Tourism Can Get Its Mojo Back
Photo Credit: Shown here is Kadoro, the restaurant at Bushmans Kloof Wilderness Reserve & Wellness Retreat in the Cederberg Mountains in the Western Cape, South Africa. The Red Carnation Hotel Collection
Skift Take
South African tourism is on the decline. There are several factors at play, but given the diversity of experiences that can be had in this country of 58 million people, what's needed is a new and sharper narrative.
On Experience
Colin Nagy is a marketing strategist and writes on customer-centric experiences and innovation across the luxury sector, hotels, aviation, and beyond. You can read all of his writing here.
South African tourism is on the decline. International tourist arrivals in 2019 is down 11.65 percent, or 1.25 million (10.47 million in 2018 versus 9.25 million in 2019), from 2018, according to data released by the country's tourism board.
There are a multitude of reasons behind this: a drought in the Western Cape region managed to make its way onto international newscasts; there are ongoing concerns about crime and stability that people read about in The Economist. Also, as emerging countries like Namibia, Senegal, Ethiopia, and Rwanda make a compelling and persuasive sell for intrepid tourist dollars, they take share away from South Africa.
It’s always hard to precisely quantify some of the macroeconomic factors and how they come into play. What is clear is that tourism marketing and packaging a compelling narrative play a key role in this, and what the country of South Africa has been doing to promote itself as a destination isn’t working.
A campaign from the past, ho
