Happy holidays: Here's how South Africans spend on travel

By Simon Anderssen, head of 22seven Insights

It’s that time of the year again when we all start thinking about holidays. The first weeks of December have dragged on long enough. It's?time for beaches, braais and good times. And who can blame us? We’ve had a tough few years and we all deserve a bit of R&R.

But before we bid the office farewell, here’s a snapshot of how South Africans spend on travel.?

Driving to the coast is a time-honoured December tradition that reflects in the data. We analysed the aggregated spending by 22seven users on toll fees over the course of a year. Spending peaked in December 2021, at 40% above the annual average, and the pattern is likely to repeat itself in 2022.

What about booking a place to stay? If you’ve ever made the mistake of trying to find a last-minute house to rent on the coast during December, you’ll know that every bungalow, chalet and boutique hotel from Kleinzee to Kosi Bay is occupied.

Airbnb has made it possible for people who own holiday houses to capitalise on this demand, and for people who live on the coast to hide somewhere else over Christmas and use their house for profit.?

Unsurprisingly, 65% of spending on accommodation through hotel chains and aggregators in the three months leading up to December was done on the Airbnb platform.?Booking.com?was second with 28% of spending, and other smaller aggregators and hotels made up the final 7%.?

If you happen to be an international tourist, your prospects are brighter than the midday sun on Camps Bay Beach. Data from?AirDNA, which analyses the short-term rental industry, shows that the average daily US$ rate for an Airbnb rental in Cape Town has declined by 15% since last December.?

This doesn’t account for changes in the quality of listings, and we might just be biased towards South Africa’s prettiest city, but it seems like a steal… Especially if you’re paying in dollars or euros.?

From everyone at 22seven, we wish you a fantastic festive season.?Nugget?will be on holiday too, but we’ll be back in 2023 with more data-driven insights.

Safe travels!

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22seven?is a safe and secure digital service that allows you to see all your money in one place and get a personalised budget, automatically. Our goal is to help South Africans take control of their finances.