Now that President Cyril Ramaphosa has moved the country to alert level 1, the prospect of travelling overseas doesn’t seem as daunting for some.
In fact, South Africans are keen to travel, according to the latest research from Finder.com’s Travel Index.
The survey found that 28% of adults are planning to travel over the next three months, up from 21 percent a month ago.
For the past seven months, the percentage of adults planning to travel either domestically or internationally has hovered between 20-23%, and it looks like plans for domestic and international travel are increasing.
“The number of adults making short-term travel plans in South Africa has consistently been much lower compared to other countries included in the research. For instance, Ireland has had well over a quarter of the population making travel plans since earlier this year,” said Finder.com’s editor-at-large, Angus Kidman.
“This is the first time since we started the Index that we’ve seen travel plans take off in South Africa, with the country now ranking 4th out of 12 countries for the percentage planning to travel,” he said.
Kidman added that the rise in travel plans coincides with relaxed travel restrictions in some countries.
“Over the past week the US and Germany have both announced plans to relax their travel restrictions for vaccinated South Africans.”
“It’s interesting to see the jump in travel plans coincide with these big announcements.
“However, it’s worth mentioning there are still more than 75 countries, including the UK, that have quite heavy restrictions on South Africans entering for recreational purposes, so those international figures may stay low for a while,” he concluded.
Read the full report here: https://www.finder.com/za/finders-travel-index