Judging by the turn out at the Flight Centre Travel Expo, South Africans are eager to travel despite global uncertainties.
Flight Centre revealed it issued travel quotes to the value of R140-million in just one weekend, proving that South Africans are eager to travel despite the weak exchange rate and coronavirus concerns. The travel company said this weekend that Travel Expo sales reached over R50-million.
Flight Centre Travel Group Middle East and Africa MD Andrew Stark said South Africans were resilient and looked for bargain travel deals.
“The weekend’s Travel Expo showed us that there’s still a massive appetite among South Africans to travel, especially if they can get a good deal.
“While the vast majority (80 percent) of flight bookings made during the Travel Expo were international travel bookings, domestic travel bookings showed the strongest growth. Local flight bookings were up by over 130 percent from the previous year, while overall domestic travel bookings showed an increase of over 50 percent,” he said.
Stark said South Africa came up head and shoulders above all international destinations both in terms of packages and flights sold.
The top sellers were Cape Town, Johannesburg and Durban. It also emerged that South Africans were still travelling despite uncertain global conditions.
Kim Taylor, Customer Experience Director at the Flight Centre Travel Group, said the company has a responsibility to always be at the forefront of giving our customers factual information.
“We take great guidance from reputable organisations such as the World Health Organisation and the NICD. Our responsibility is to support customers by making them aware of their options and ensure they are informed at all times.” She said travel insurance was important.
Top destinations
Flight Centre's top-selling destinations for flight bookings following South Africa, were the UK, Mauritius, Australia and New Zealand. Top selling packages were Mauritius, Zanzibar, Victoria Falls and Bali.
Other popular international destinations this year were Greece, Canada and Turkey. Bookings to Greece increased by over 60 percent while Canada showed over 110 percent growth. Turkey holiday sales were up by over 50 percent.
Although sales for Mauritius declined compared to the previous year, the island remains a popular destination for South Africans.
Although Indonesia and Thailand are usually top sellers for Flight Centre, these destinations were outperformed by cruising and touring this year.
Especially cruising proved popular with cruise sales seeing an increase of 30 percent.
Guided holiday tours have also become a popular option for many South Africans.