{"id":20197,"date":"2014-02-28T09:50:00","date_gmt":"2014-02-28T09:50:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/traveloscopy.com\/travel-news\/south-african-currency-devaluation-brings-tourists-flocking\/"},"modified":"2014-02-28T09:50:00","modified_gmt":"2014-02-28T09:50:00","slug":"south-african-currency-devaluation-brings-tourists-flocking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/traveloscopy.com\/travel-news\/2014\/02\/south-african-currency-devaluation-brings-tourists-flocking\/","title":{"rendered":"South African Currency Devaluation Brings Tourists Flocking!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"570554\"EVERY cloud has a silver lining, they say \u2013 for foreign tourists in search of the ultimate safari vacation, South Africa\u2019s currency, the rand, makes for very shiny prospects as it has devalued by between 22% and 32% against major currencies over the past 12 months, meaning that dollars, euros and pounds buy so much more in South Africa.<\/span><\/span>

<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Savvy travellers, who choose the right time of year, and perhaps lesser-known but just as good destinations, are lapping up the opportunity to experience South Africa\u2019s \u201cworld in one country\u201d at an impressive discount.<\/span><\/div>\n
While the global economic downturn of the past few years put a dampener on international travel, those who stayed closer to home for their vacations are now seeing the light at the end of the tunnel and, thanks to the weak rand, they\u2019re heading in their droves down that tunnel straight towards sunny South Africa!<\/span><\/div>\n
\"570557\"The promise of an international tourism boost from South Africa\u2019s hugely successful hosting of the Soccer World Cup in 2010 has been realised as visitor numbers have grown steadily ever since. That growth is now spiking upwards, boosted by the rand having lost so much of its value.<\/span><\/div>\n
In the country\u2019s Eastern Cape province, luxury game reserves are seeing increased numbers of visitors particularly from North America & Europe mapping out itineraries that maximise South Africa\u2019s advantages of great value together with diverse experiences. From the Cape winelands, Robben Island, Table Mountain, history and seaside splendour of Cape Town \u2013 placed by the New York Times at the\u201cNo. 1 place to visit in 2014\u201d\u2013they\u2019re heading along the scenic Garden Route for a Big 5 luxury safari experience in a malaria-free area.<\/span><\/div>\n
\"570560\"The beauty of this route (Cape Town-Garden Route-Safari) is that it can be done in either direction with an easy self-drive along the coast, with a mid-way stop-over in any number of scenic small towns, at unbelievable prices (a 10-night itinerary spending 4 nights in Cape Town, 3 nights on the Garden Route and 3 nights on safari, including car hire and meals, will cost approximately US$1100\/GBP650between May and August 2014). For those who prefer not to drive in an unfamiliar country, there are chauffeur-drive and shuttle options, or flights spanning the Garden Route between Cape Town and Port Elizabeth.<\/span><\/div>\n
\"570563\"Adding to South Africa\u2019s value proposition is that all costs are in rands, rather than the US dollars preferred by many other African countries. This means that, whilst South Africa has become cheaper due to its weakened currency, prices in neighbouring African countries like Botswana and Zambia have remained the same.<\/span><\/div>\n
A quick shop around on prices reveals that the same bottle of red wine on a London menu at \u00a325 (R450) is no more than \u00a38 (R150) on a local restaurant\u2019s wine list. A pint of beer that costs US$6 (R65) in New York will set the tourist back around a US$1.75 (R20) in a trendy Cape Town pub! For the price of a meal in one of London\u2019s celebrity chef restaurants (\u00a340-\u00a350, or R720-R900, without drinks), tourists can indulge in a multi-course wine-paired dinner at a top winelands restaurant in the Cape. For South Africa, that\u2019s really the top end of the scale and there are plenty of excellent restaurants where dinner and wine will make a much smaller dent in the tourist\u2019s wallet.<\/span><\/div>\n
\"570566\"And travellers are making the most of that extra value \u2013 latest figures from South African Tourism, the country\u2019s official marketer, show that foreign tourists are spending on average two days longer in South Africa than they used to 3 years ago. Due to the rand\u2019s devaluation, these \u201cextra\u201d two days are essentially for free because the tourists are spending the same amount of dollars or pounds as they used to 3 years ago.<\/span><\/div>\n
Port Elizabeth, 750km from Cape Town and location of the main airport accessing the Eastern Cape and the Garden Route, is seeing increasing numbers of foreign visitors, according to the CEO of Nelson Mandela Bay Tourism.<\/span><\/div>\n
\"570569\"An hour\u2019s drive from Port Elizabeth, Lalibela Game Reserve founder Rick Van Zyl (pronounced \u201cfun-sail\u201d)echoes this, noting a marked increase in bookings from Europe, the UK and North America over the past year.<\/span><\/div>\n
\u201cMost travellers to Africa and South Africa are looking for a safari experience and we have benefited greatly from the increased numbers of visitors to Cape Town. We are a short hop down the coast and a logical choice for travellers who want to avoid malaria areas<\/em>,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/div>\n
The route between Cape Town and the Eastern Cape offers a huge variety of interesting diversions and adventurous excursions, he said, from the coastline with its thickly-forested mountains, wild seas and picturesque towns, to the arty communities, fruit orchards and history-laden quirky villages of the dusty Karoo. Along the way, there are tree-top forest canopy tours, the world\u2019s highest commercial bridge bungy jump, boutique wine farms and historical sites related to South Africa\u2019s frontier wars and colonial-era settlers to explore.<\/span><\/div>\n
\"570580\"\u201cMore than 90% of our foreign visitors combine a visit to the Cape with a safari experience in this way<\/em>,\u201d says Van Zyl, and a quick chat to guests at Lalibela bears this out.<\/span><\/div>\n
At the tail-end of their first visit to South Africa, retired school teacher Margaret Campbell and school inspector husband David, from Stirling in Scotland, said their only regret was booking for only two weeks. \u201cWe thought two weeks would be more than enough, but there\u2019s so much more we still want to see and do, we\u2019ll have to come back. The rand might not be great for South Africans but it\u2019s great for us \u2013 we can easily afford to come back,\u201d she said.<\/span><\/div>\n
Dubai-based UK engineer Harry Jones, 55, said his 10 days in South Africa had been \u201cliterally a world of experiences\u201d.<\/span><\/div>\n
\u201cWe loved the winelands and now here at Lalibela with the natural landscape and all the game, it has been a total African experience. And compared to what we would pay back home, the value is unbelievable,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/div>\n
Twenty-something Australians Dylan Taylor and fianc\u00e9e Alison Smith were on a scouting trip for wedding venues, as South African-born Smith\u2019s family are still mostly in the country. \u201cIt\u2019s been amazing to see \u2018my\u2019 country through Dylan\u2019s eyes,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019m really looking forward to introducing the rest of our Australian family to all the experiences in South Africa. Apart from my family being South African, we want to get married here because it will be an experience like no other \u2013 a great holiday for everyone, and the best place to explore on honeymoon,\u201d she said.<\/span><\/div>\n
All complimented their experience at Lalibela for the warm Eastern Cape hospitality as much as the abundant game-viewing experiences. Similarly, South African Tourism\u2019s research shows that almost 60% of visitors in 2013 said their most positive experience of the country was the \u201chospitality and friendly people\u201d, closely followed by good infrastructure and service, beautiful scenery, value for money and diverse experiences.<\/span><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

EVERY cloud has a silver lining, they say \u2013 for foreign tourists in search of the ultimate safari vacation, South Africa\u2019s currency, the rand, makes for very shiny prospects as it has devalued by between 22% and 32% against major currencies over the past 12 months, meaning that dollars, euros and pounds buy so much […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[279],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20197","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-south-africa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/traveloscopy.com\/travel-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20197","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/traveloscopy.com\/travel-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/traveloscopy.com\/travel-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/traveloscopy.com\/travel-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/traveloscopy.com\/travel-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20197"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/traveloscopy.com\/travel-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20197\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/traveloscopy.com\/travel-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20197"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/traveloscopy.com\/travel-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20197"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/traveloscopy.com\/travel-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20197"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}