South African tourism sector braces for US dip

CapeTalk’s Lester Kiewit speaks with Gillian Saunders, an independent tourism and hospitality adviser.

Listen below:

Anecdotal evidence suggests fewer Americans are visiting our shores, but does the data support this?

Saunders says that American arrivals were up in January compared to 2024 and slightly down in February, but still above 2019 numbers.

However, she says stakeholders are worried.

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She adds that there are two main causes of concern for our tourism sector, US President Donald Trump's hostile attitude towards South Africa and the risk of an American recession.

“The biggest challenge to our tourism industry is perceptions and the reality of safety and security in our country. Without that, we would have double or triple the number of tourists we have.”

- Gillian Saunders

Scroll up to the audio player to listen to the interview for more.