South African newlyweds Richard and Christine Wyngaard could have opted to honeymoon in the exotic Seychelles or romantic Italy. Instead, they chose Kenya — their first African trip north of their own border.
Twelve years after the fall of apartheid ended international isolation and bridged a cultural chasm between South Africa and the rest of the continent, people like the Wyngaards are opting to explore their own continent.
”Africa is so beautiful and unspoiled and we wanted to support our continent,” said Richard. ”It was our first trip in Africa but we both see ourselves as Africans, even though we’re white, so it made sense to travel here.”
Africa’s prolific wildlife and epic scenery has long attracted Europeans and Americans. South Africa itself, which twins majestic scenery with modern comforts, is aiming to attract 10-million foreign visitors a year by 2010, when it hosts the soccer World Cup.
But for years, white South Africans shunned the rest of the continent, seeing it as poor, dangerous and uninviting.
Now, as a fast-growing black middle class joins the ranks of holidaymakers and as more white South Africans start to see themselves as part of Africa, travellers are heading to beaches and safari parks in Mozambique, Namibia, Kenya and Tanzania.
”South Africans once lived in a laager-type environment [siege mentality],” said Eric de Jager, director of local tourism firm Tourvest. ”Now we’re becoming more aware of the opportunities around us, there is huge growth in Africa,” he told Reuters in a telephone interview.
Business boom
South African-owned hotels and lodges are springing up along Mozambique’s virtually unspoiled coastline, in the business districts of Nigeria’s Lagos and in Kenya’s Mombasa resort.
Tourvest this month took control of an ecotourism business in East Africa and also bought a contract to run a tented safari camp in Tanzania’s famed Serengeti National Park.
South African resort operator Sun International, which already runs hotels in Zambia, Botswana, Namibia, Lesotho and Swaziland, is also looking to expand on the continent.
Tour operator Thompsons Tours said it took more than 1 000 bookings from South Africans travelling in Africa this May — more than three times as many as in May 2005.
”People have done Europe and they’re starting to get more adventurous on their own continent,” said Claudia Rees, an agent at Dynamic Travel. ”Plus the black middle class are travelling a lot — everywhere.”
Business travel from South Africa’s commercial hub Johannesburg is also growing fast as the country’s retailers, cellphone firms and banks eye the potential buying power north of the border and, encouraged by greater stability, expand into some of the world’s least tapped markets.
Executives from Johannesburg and Cape Town are snapping up plane seats and hotel rooms as their companies set up shop in Lagos, Nairobi, Zambia’s Lusaka and Luanda in Angola.
And business people from South Africa’s neighbours increasingly head to Johannesburg, Africa’s economic pulse, to shop for luxury items that are scarce at home, or for cheap wholesale goods to stock the shelves of small businesses.
To meet demand, Thompsons has forged links with hotels in 15 African countries compared to nine this time last year and Tourvest has launched a business travel agency in Nigeria.
Low-cost airline Kulula has added flights to Zimbabwe’s Harare, Windhoek in Namibia and Lusaka.
British entrepreneur Richard Branson’s Virgin Group already runs Virgin Nigeria and is thinking about launching a new budget airline to meet growing demand in southern Africa.
”Flights from Malawi are full every week and that’s with tickets often at $400,” Virgin mobile South Africa’s chief executive Sajeed Sacranie said.
”There is demand for a cheaper option, especially for business travellers.” – Reuters