Here are South Africans favourite international holiday destinations for 2023

Mauritius has proved to be the first choice for many South African travellers as it scored the number one spot on this year’s list of the top ten most popular international destinations that South Africans travelled to in 2023.

According to the Australia-based international travel company Flight Centre Travel Group (FCTG), Dubai, Thailand, Zanzibar, USA, Bali, UK, France, Italy, and the Maldives took the remaining spots, respectively.

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Johannesburg was the most popular local destination in 2023

FCTTG also revealed that Johannesburg was the most popular local destination in 2023.

Flight Centre South Africa GM, Antoinette Turner, said they uncovered some interesting travel patterns that emerged in 2023.

“We’re seeing things like a sharp rise in solo female travellers, Mauritius and Dubai returning strongly as favourite holiday destinations, and 4-star accommodation reigning supreme.”

She added: “2024 promises to be the year where people continue to seek out more first-time travel experiences, whether that’s travelling solo in Asia or Europe, touring destinations such as Peru or Vietnam, or taking significant others on bucket list cruises.”

Turner said FCTG booked flights for at least 262 infants travelling with parents.

“We saw a growing number of families booking their holidays with Flight Centre in 2023, and we booked flights for a total of 262 infants travelling with their parents/guardians. That’s a lot of games of peek-a-boo-I-see-you that countless parents/guardians kindly initiated for our benefit. And we thank you.

“Our travellers’ longest stay locally was 21 days… The biggest overseas hotel booking was a stay at Atlantis, The Royal in Dubai. The biggest domestic hotel booking was a stay at Kapama River Lodge in Hoedspruit’s Kapama Private Game Reserve.”

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