Janyne Simon-Meyer
The rand may be down and interest rates up, but South Africans are not sitting at home these holidays.
The mainstream traveller is seeking out good value destinations – like Asia – and sensible savings like all-inclusive or cut-rate package deals.
Internationally, Thailand and Malaysia are the hottest best-value holiday spots.
The shopping and city life of Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur and even Singapore retain appeal, say agents, but beach resorts in Phuket, Pattaya, Koh Samui and Langkawi are drawing special attention.
Beachcombers South Africa’s sales for the Far East were up 65% for the year ending September 1998, and the trend is set to continue, says marketing manager Colleen Broadley.
Ticketing for Thompsons Tours is up 35% to 40% compared to last year, especially for Asian destinations. Exchange rates make it an affordable option, says Lucy Hoyle, Thompsons’s media and advertising manager.
Mauritius, the Maldives and Zimbabwe also get a mention as good options for international travel. Mauritius scores on the all-inclusive package deals and Zimbabwe on the favourable exchange rates.
But family ties are pulling travellers to the United States and Australia as strongly as ever.
Locally, mainstream travel is two words: Cape Town. Thompsons Tours alone sent nearly 6 000 visitors to the mother city this winter, up from 2 000 last year.
So far they’ve sold 2 500 places for the six-week Christmas holiday period and expect 6 000 sales, up from 4 500 last December, says national domestic manager Charmaine Vorster.
If you want to drive through the Karoo and sleep in Gardens, for example, Thompsons can get you a week’s accommodation at R735 per person sharing, or R865 over the Christmas/New Year period.
Thompsons also offers a package for two adults and two children under 12 to fly to and sleep in the mother city for a week for about R3 600.
Southern Sun will charge R560 for five nights at Greenmarket Square, but flight packages that include rooms there and at similarly priced hotels were sold out by the middle of October.
However, agents believe that with the plethora of new hotels and bed-and- breakfast establishments in the city, other good value options may still be found.
“It’s worth trying, providing you’re prepared to be flexible,” says Avryl Gray of Concorde Travel.
Another indicator of the rush for bargains was the response to the South African Airways promotion which offered a second ticket for R10 for every ticket bought on its major routes. The airline sold tens of thousands of tickets, says chief executive Coleman Andrews.
Outside the mother city, trends are mixed. South Africans are not being drawn to game reserves and the winelands, says Vorster.
The Garden Route and Sun City are drawing steady interest, but the Eastern Cape is not on the package route map and Durban’s beachfront is not picking up the expected sales.
That is despite the fact that two adults can fly economy class to Durbs and share a room in a four-star hotel on the Golden Mile for R2 440 for a week.
Travellers intent on getting to higher- priced destinations like the US are booking in advance to secure a guaranteed rate of exchange.
Many more people are also booking flights only, and swopping their timeshare so that they have accommodation in the US, reports Louise le Roux, consultant at Flight Centre in Rosebank, Johannesburg.
South Africans are probably more discerning about where they are going and are also tempted to take short cuts like forgoing travel insurance.
“They’d do better to save rands by booking in South Africa and flying in off-peak periods,” advises Chris du Toit, executive director of the Association of Southern African Travel Agents.
Another option is to look at alternative travel: Madagascar, for example, costs about R6 000 for conventional packages, but is picking up appeal for the independently minded, who can come out on about R3 100 for flights and R100 a day for expenses, says Le Roux.
Closer to home it costs less than R1 000 for a ticket on the BazBus, a smallish coach that gives you an unlimited door-to- door service to hostels across the country, or R2 170 per person for a six-night trip from Johannesburg, via Chobe and the Zambezi River, to the Victoria Falls.
But be warned: South Africans may need to earn their welcome. “We’d love to have locals take up our tours, but we want real travellers,” says Lee Harris of Africa Travel Centre.
“South African holidaymakers don’t show the respect that international holidaymakers do – they don’t tidy up, they expect a lot and they usually abuse it.”