South Africa is still struggling in Switzerland

South Africa is again very popular with guests from the DACH region. A total of 220,446 tourists from the DACH region traveled to the country at the southern tip of Africa last year. This is an increase from Germany of 290.1% and from Austria of 258.8%. The Swiss came back somewhat more hesitantly, with a comparatively modest increase of 192.4% compared to the previous year.

The lifting of the entry ban was certainly one of the main reasons for the upswing last year. However, South Africa’s tourism leaders also hold the ‘Live again!’ campaign. for match-making. It corresponds exactly to the wishes of those who are hungry for vacation: finally being able to feel again what it means to live and experience.

However, South Africa is still a long way from the flow of visitors it saw before the pandemic. In the pre-Corona year 2019, 322,000 tourists came from Germany alone. At that time there were around 50,000 from Switzerland. South Africa is currently still a long way from these figures.

And the country is also dragging along a mortgage from the time before the pandemic: Even in the years before 2020, the number of guests from all over the DACH region and especially from Switzerland increased significantly return. High prices, poor quality and safety concerns curbed the desire for safaris back then. So strong that a top-class delegation from the tourism authorities in the fall of 2019 launched a large-scale Charme-Offensive launched at the TO. But then Corona came.

Christian Maurer

Press