Now in its second year, Visit Stellenbosch’s annual Tourism Economic Impact Study provides an evidence-based measure of tourism’s contribution to the local economy. The latest findings show that more than 1.35 million overnight visitors generated R13 billion for Stellenbosch in 2025 while supporting 48,007 direct, indirect and induced jobs across the municipality.

Every day, tourism contributes an estimated R35 million to Stellenbosch’s economy. Behind every visitor is a local story: jobs created, businesses supported, entrepreneurs empowered, and communities strengthened through a thriving visitor economy. These are the lives behind the numbers.

The latest Tourism Economic Impact Study, commissioned by Visit Stellenbosch and independently compiled by Futureneer Advisors, confirms that tourism remains one of Stellenbosch’s most important economic drivers and demonstrates how a shared destination strategy is delivering measurable value for residents, businesses and visitors alike.

The research shows that international overnight arrivals increased by 12% to 641,405 visitors, while domestic overnight tourism grew by an impressive 21% to 711,330 visitors. Together, these figures reinforce Stellenbosch’s position as one of South Africa’s leading tourism destinations and demonstrate the growing strength of a balanced, year-round visitor economy.

While direct tourism value added remained stable at R6.3 billion, the sector continued to generate significant economic value despite global economic uncertainty and increasingly cautious consumer spending. The results point to a destination that has moved beyond post-pandemic recovery and into a new phase of resilient, sustainable growth.

A destination strategy delivering measurable results

Tourism success does not happen by chance. It is the result of long-term planning, strategic investment and collaboration between Stellenbosch Municipality, Visit Stellenbosch, the tourism industry, local businesses and communities working towards a shared vision for the destination.

That strategy focuses on growing year-round demand, encouraging longer stays, expanding the geographic spread of visitors across the destination, supporting tourism businesses, promoting inclusive tourism experiences and ensuring that tourism growth benefits local communities.

As one of Stellenbosch Municipality’s two official Destination Management Organisations (DMOs), Visit Stellenbosch goes beyond destination marketing. The organisation grows demand, promotes year-round visitation, supports tourism businesses, builds strategic partnerships, invests in research and market intelligence, measures tourism’s economic contribution and brings stakeholders together to deliver long-term value for Stellenbosch.

The annual Tourism Economic Impact Study is a key part of this work. By measuring tourism’s direct, indirect and induced contribution to the economy, it informs decision-making, demonstrates return on investment, tracks tourism performance and supports long-term destination stewardship.

Tourism that benefits everyone

Annemie Liebenberg, CEO of Visit Stellenbosch, said the findings demonstrate far more than visitor growth:

“Tourism is one of Stellenbosch’s greatest opportunities to create lasting economic value. Every visitor supports local businesses, creates employment and contributes to stronger communities. That is why destination management matters. Our role is not simply to attract visitors, but to ensure tourism grows sustainably, benefits residents and leaves Stellenbosch stronger for future generations.

“These results show what is possible when research, partnership and long-term thinking come together behind a shared vision.”

A partnership driving destination success

Stellenbosch Mayor, Jeremy Fasser, welcomed the findings and acknowledged the collective effort that continues to position Stellenbosch as one of South Africa’s premier visitor destinations.

“These results demonstrate what can be achieved when Stellenbosch Municipality, Visit Stellenbosch, our tourism industry and local communities work together with a shared vision.

“The Municipality is proud to invest in and partner with Visit Stellenbosch to grow a visitor economy that creates employment, supports local businesses, attracts investment and enhances quality of life for our residents. Together, we are building a destination whose success benefits everyone.”

Setting the benchmark for destination management

The study reinforces Stellenbosch’s strategic importance within the Western Cape tourism economy, attracting approximately 40% of all international visitors to the province.

As destinations across South Africa compete for visitors and investment, Stellenbosch continues to demonstrate the value of collaboration, strategic planning and evidence-led destination management. By combining research, partnership and innovation, the destination is creating a resilient visitor economy that delivers benefits for residents, businesses and visitors alike.

2025 Highlights at a glance:

• R13 billion generated for the local economy

• 48,007 direct, indirect and induced jobs supported

• 1.35 million overnight visitors

• 641,405 international overnight visitors (12% growth)

• 711,330 domestic overnight visitors (21% growth)

• R35 million contributed to the economy every day

• Approximately 40% of the Western Cape’s international visitors choose Stellenbosch

Why we measure the value of tourism

The Value of Tourism is Visit Stellenbosch’s annual economic impact study and forms part of the organisation’s commitment to evidence-based destination management. Independently compiled by Futureneer Advisors using data from Statistics South Africa and South African Tourism, the study measures tourism’s direct, indirect and induced contribution to Stellenbosch’s economy, employment and visitor volumes.

By tracking tourism’s performance year after year, the study provides the insights needed to inform decision-making, guide destination development and demonstrate the value of investing in tourism.

The findings provide a roadmap for the future. Visit Stellenbosch will continue investing in destination marketing, destination development, research, industry support and collaborative partnerships that strengthen the visitor economy while protecting the unique character, cultural heritage and natural environment that make Stellenbosch one of the world’s most desirable destinations.

Great destinations do not happen by chance. They are built through partnership, guided by evidence and inspired by a shared vision.

-ENDS-

For media enquiries, additional information, or to arrange an interview with Annemie Liebenberg, please contact visitstellenbosch@bigambitions.co.za. 

About Visit Stellenbosch

Visit Stellenbosch is the official destination marketing organisation for Stellenbosch, dedicated to growing sustainable tourism, supporting the local visitor economy and showcasing the region as one of South Africa’s premier wine, food, culture and outdoor destinations.

Carmen Hidalgo, Customer Success Team Leader at Corporate Traveller South Africa, says the framing is where most people go wrong.

“The biggest misconception is that lounge access is a luxury perk,” she says. “For frequent business travellers, it’s a practical tool, one that cuts travel fatigue, improves comfort during delays and helps you make better, more productive use of time spent in airports.”

Once you see the lounge as a high-functioning co-working space, and a chance to rest and breathe, things start to look a little different.

When it makes financial sense

For business travellers, the most common options are lounge memberships such as Priority Pass, airline loyalty programmes, purchasing day passes as needed, or accessing lounges through corporate travel agreements and company credit cards. For occasional travellers, day passes are often the most cost-effective. For more frequent travellers, membership programmes generally provide better value over time.

Hidalgo believes that if a traveller is flying every month or making 10-15+ lounge visits a year, a membership or bundled access option starts making more financial sense than buying day passes ad hoc.

Of course, it also helps to know what the passes cost. Walk-in rates at the general-access lounges, Bidvest among them, run from about R300 to R700 a visit, while premium co-branded bank lounges (like SLOW) do not allow general walk-ins and instead require specific bank card tiers or partner programmes.

The door price is only part of the calculation, though. What you’re really paying for is the quiet productivity of a well-considered space.

“The biggest value is in reliable connectivity, comfortable seating, charging facilities, a quieter working environment and complimentary refreshments. These are the features that help business travellers stay productive,” says Hidalgo. “The high-end touches like spa treatments or shower facilities are nice to have, but they’re rarely the reason an SME traveller sees a return on investment.”

That return is easiest to see when things go wrong: your flight is pushed back, your phone needs a charge and the terminal is heaving. You can brave a noisy coffee shop, or move to the lounge, plug in and clear your inbox before you fly. Six or seven trips a year can easily add up to the better part of three working days in airports, and lounge access gives you some of that time back.

A lounge reality check, and how to maximise your time

While lounges were once a quiet refuge for the select few, premium credit cards have thrown open the doors. Now lounges across the world are coming under fire for snaking queues and crowded floors, especially over peak periods. To control numbers, operators have pushed back with restrictions: entry windows that open only a few hours before departure, higher walk-in rates, caps on guests per cardholder and, in some cases, a charge to pre-book a seat. All of it chips at the overall experience, and it’s fair to ask whether a busy lounge is now simply a glorified waiting room.

Hidalgo doesn’t dodge the point. “Overcrowding has reduced some of the productivity benefits travellers used to expect,” she says. “So, we tell clients to treat lounge access as one part of the trip, not the whole experience. And you do need to be intentional about it.”

As Hidalgo explains, customers commonly allow lounge access for frequent travellers, longer layovers, delays, or trips where employees are travelling directly into meetings. The objective should be helping travellers make the best use of their time while maintaining sensible cost control.

“A managed travel programme gives businesses greater visibility and control over traveller benefits, including lounge access,” she says. “Depending on the programme, access may be linked to negotiated supplier agreements, traveller status, or internal travel policy guidelines. The best travel policies treat lounge access as a structured and managed benefit rather than an ad hoc traveller expense.”

When it comes to maximising your lounge experience, a few simple steps make a big difference:

• Check in before you arrive. Use the airline app and travel with hand luggage where you can, so you clear the landside queues and head straight through security to the lounge.
• Mind the fine print. Some lounges, SLOW among them, only let you in 90 minutes before boarding a domestic flight, while international departure lounges have different windows (for example, three hours before boarding).
• Don’t overlook arrival lounges. At the bigger hubs you can shower and press a suit after a red-eye before walking into a client meeting.
• Use the Wi-Fi for the heavy lifting. The private network will carry a video call or a large upload that terminal signal tends to drop.
• Find the quiet corners. Phone booths and work suites, where they exist, are for the calls and pitch prep you’d rather not have overheard.
• Eat before you board. A proper meal in the lounge frees the flight itself for sleep or focused offline work.
• Claim a plug early. Grab a seat near a charging point and get everything topped up before you leave, so you land ready to go.
• Check what else is included. Many lounges offer showers, printing or a fast-track security lane, so it’s worth knowing what your access covers before you pay for it elsewhere.

So, is it worth it?

For all the grumbling about crowds and cost, most travellers still answer yes. Airport Dimensions’ Airport Experience 2025 study, which surveyed more than 10,000 regular flyers worldwide, found that 97% were unwilling to give up their lounge access, and 45% would switch banks to keep card-linked lounge privileges. With terminals busier than ever, 62% said they would pay for premium services to get some breathing room, treating the lounge as a travel essential.

The top end of the market is reading the same signal and spending accordingly. Etihad’s First Class Lounge and Spa in Abu Dhabi has a gym with cardio machines and weights; Finnair’s Platinum Wing in Helsinki runs a traditional Finnish sauna; and from September 2027, San Francisco International will offer private bedrooms, showers and a speakeasy for travellers waiting out a long layover.

For most business travellers, though, the appeal is more grounded. “They can be impressive,” says Hidalgo of the flashier offerings, “although most business travellers still place the highest value on quiet spaces, comfort and the ability to work efficiently.”

It’s evidence of an invisible itinerary: the planning, coordination and caregiving responsibilities that happen behind the scenes, before a single flight is booked. Think school runs and lift clubs, dog walks and vet visits, stocked fridges and pre-cooked meals, medication schedules for elderly parents or kids, emergency contacts briefed well in advance, and detailed instructions so everything runs like a military operation.

Gen X and older Millennials, in particular, feel the strain. The modern “sandwich generation” find themselves juggling dual caregiving responsibilities that directly impact professional obligations, including work travel.

The encouraging part of the research is what follows – clear evidence that the right organisational support and policies ease the load and support traveller health and wellbeing.

“The first fix is making sure every trip has a clear purpose, for the business and for the traveller,” says Elize De Jager, Operations Team Leader at Corporate Traveller South Africa, a global travel management company (TMC) that specialises in providing tailored business travel services to small-to-medium enterprises (SMEs). 

“It’s a principle that matters for any company watching its travel spend, particularly SMEs, but it carries extra weight for the person weighing up whether a trip is worth the disruption at home. Few will say that part out loud, though. Admitting to the caregiving and coordination happening behind the scenes takes a genuinely safe workplace, and not everyone has one. In the wrong environment, the cost of staying quiet can be steep: with women turning down worthwhile trips – for their personal development, career and for the business itself – simply because of what’s happening at home. That’s not ideal.”

Better policies and systems

De Jager’s view is a practical one: the fix isn’t asking people to share more about what they’re carrying. Visibility only helps, she says, if a workplace receives it well – and in the wrong culture, disclosing too much too soon can do more harm than good. Instead, it’s about fixing outdated policies.

“Some workplaces can feel as if they’re structured around an imaginary worker who has no caregiving responsibilities and unlimited availability,” she says. “That person is increasingly rare – and was probably never the norm.”

Douglas’s research with the University of Pretoria touches on how important organisational support is when it comes to traveller wellness and wellbeing. Put simply, higher levels of organisational support lead to higher levels of employee engagement. This could mean offering employees an opportunity to recover after a trip; providing the necessary training and coaching ahead of key trips (including cultural awareness guidance, which can help travellers navigate unfamiliar environments with greater confidence and reduce unnecessary risk); allowing more comfortable travel (including premium economy or business class for long-haul flights); and ensuring that all the travel arrangements run smoothly. And of course, this shouldn’t just be understood – it should be written into policy.

De Jager says this might include:

• Giving travellers a say in flight timing, particularly for early departures or late arrivals.
• Giving travellers a choice in ground transport, i.e. a pre-booked shuttle or transfer instead of defaulting to the cheapest option, especially after dark.
• Choosing accommodation with safety in mind, including 24-hour reception, security and security cameras, key-card access to lifts, safe locations and positive reviews.
• Building in recovery time after long trips, rather than an immediate return to a full schedule.
• Canvassing cross-departmental input into policy design, so travel policy reflects real working lives.
• Flexibility to extend a trip so the family can join, where workable. Excursions, outings and leisure activities all play a role in employee morale and satisfaction.

For De Jager, none of these are radical. They’re achievable, and TMCs can help draft the policies, vet accommodation and transport suppliers, and negotiate corporate rates to help make it happen.

Closing the gaps

“A policy that books the cheapest available flight without factoring in who’s collecting children from school or covering an elderly parent’s evening care, isn’t neutral; it simply shifts a cost from the balance sheet onto the traveller’s household,” says Christelle Louw, Operations Team Leader at Corporate Traveller and mother of three.

“Companies must recognise that women bear a disproportionate share of caregiving,” says Louw. “But many men are caregivers too. If HR policies are routinely built around flexibility, and reflect the realities of the world today, it becomes a choice for everyone – not a special favour for a woman in a man’s world.”

This Women’s Day, the business case is simple: sustainable corporate travel is fair, flexible and designed for real life and real people.

As Mummy Mafojane, GM of FCM South Africa explains, when it comes to domestic hotel rooms, South Africans are accustomed to a certain size and standard. In contrast, European city hotels are notoriously compact, often squeezed into historic buildings with decidedly small rooms and limited amenities. And in secondary, satellite cities in developing regions, water, power and connectivity can be hit and miss.

For the travel manager approving the trip, the rating suggests a known quantity: a decent bed, working Wi-Fi, breakfast and a front desk that answers. For the traveller who checks in, the reality behind those stars depends entirely on who awarded them, and in some markets the answer is nobody at all.

“Our latest FCM Insights Report shows that businesses are becoming more cost-conscious and more deliberate about where their accommodation spend goes, with more corporate volume moving into the 3- and 4-star tier,” says Mafojane. “Across Africa, corporate demand is holding firm, and our top African destinations are Mozambique, Zambia, Ghana, Botswana and Zimbabwe, all corridors where South African business is growing. The only catch is that a 4-star rating can mean something different in each of them, and that’s where a managed hotel programme earns its keep.”

Who stands behind the stars? Hotel classification in FCM’s top destinations

“When a company tells us a traveller had a bad stay somewhere on the continent, the booking almost always said four-star. Nobody lied about the rating. There was just no authority behind it,” says Mafojane.

How the international list stacks up

FCM’s top international destinations for South African corporates are Germany, the United Kingdom, the United States, the United Arab Emirates and China (2026 FCM booking data), and even in these mature markets the stars don’t necessarily align, as the table shows.

Which brings us to what the rating actually buys. In South Africa, a 4-star property typically comes with extra space, room service, TV, secure parking and a proper breakfast. By 5-star, you’re looking at round-the-clock staffing, valet parking, 24-hour room service, luggage assistance, a business centre, and exceptional on-site facilities like fine dining and a spa.

A room in a 4-star hotel in central Paris or London is much smaller, and the traveller is paying considerably more for it. Corporate travellers paid an average of US$349 a night in London and US$531 in New York in the last quarter of 2025, against US$233 in Cape Town and US$196 in Johannesburg (FCM Consulting Insights Report 2026). A Johannesburg traveller landing in New York pays more than double the rate for a fraction of the space; the rating stays the same while the experience shifts.

What to look for beyond the star

In markets without enforced grading, the questions that actually predict a good stay have little to do with thread counts. Does the property have genuine backup power and water, meaning generator and borehole capacity that covers guest rooms rather than only the lobby? Are transfers and parking secure? Is the Wi-Fi reliable enough to run a video call, since connectivity in a business hotel is a working tool rather than an amenity? Will the card machine work, and can the rate be billed back rather than settled in cash? What are the real cancellation terms? And does the property appear in your travel management company’s duty of care picture at all?

“A star rating tells us what a hotel thinks about itself,” says Mafojane. “We look at backup infrastructure, secure transfers, payment, cancellation terms and whether we can reach a decision-maker at the property directly. Those are the things that decide whether a trip works.”

Hotel development in Africa has long followed colonial and linguistic lines, with French brands clustering in West Africa and Portuguese investment shaping Angola and Mozambique. Yet Mafojane says many of the most consistent properties on the continent are local chains.

“They build for the realities of their own markets, so a generator, a borehole and a driver who actually arrives are standard rather than selling points. In several of our top destinations they are simply the best-performing option, and traveller feedback confirms it trip after trip.”

The conclusion for travel managers is clear. Where the star rating cannot carry the weight placed on it, the managed programme does that work instead: verified properties, negotiated rates with consistent inclusions, traveller feedback that flags a slipping property early, and duty of care visibility across every booking. FCM now goes a step further, advising buyers to write travel policy around hotel brand types rather than star ratings, because brands describe the actual product more reliably (FCM Consulting Insights Report 2026).

“Companies that spend time interrogating and building their hotel programme will sleep better – and pay less – than those defaulting to star ratings in their travel policy,” says Mafojane.

*** ends ***

About FCM Travel:

FCM Travel, the flagship corporate travel brand at Flight Centre Travel Group (FCTG), is the business travel partner of choice for large national, multinational and global corporations. We are an award-winning global corporate travel management company ranking as one of the top five by size around the world. We operate a global network which spans more than 100 countries, employing over 6000 people.

FCM are transforming the business of travel through our empowered and accountable people who deliver 24/7 service and are available either online or offline. Leveraging FCM’s negotiating strength and supplier relationships in conjunction with our tailored business travel programs, our expertise delivers more for our clients where it matters most to them.

Visit us at www.fcmtravel.co.za

What then are the barriers to adoption? Some are practical. AI tools come with costs that need to be justified, and it takes a dedicated team to keep pace with how quickly the technology is advancing. Training matters too: an AI assistant is only useful if travellers and bookers actually use it, and adoption inside a business takes deliberate effort.

But speak to the people who sign off on these decisions and a deeper hesitation emerges, one that has less to do with time, budgets and expertise and more to do with confidence: how safe is our data, and what stops the AI from making things up? Anyone who has interacted with generative AI (like ChatGPT, Gemini or Claude) has likely watched it invent a fact, a statistic or a source with complete confidence, and a healthy wariness now follows the technology into the workplace.

Generative AI is non-deterministic by nature: ask the same question a hundred times and you can get a hundred variations of the answer. In personal, consumer settings, that’s a quirk. In corporate travel, where policy compliance, expense eligibility and duty of care are on the line, it’s a serious problem. A confident but wrong answer about visa requirements or an out-of-policy hotel recommendation creates work and risk rather than removing it.

“The hesitation we hear from South African companies is almost never about whether AI is quick enough or clever enough,” says Mummy Mafojane, General Manager of FCM South Africa. “It’s about trust and accountability. If an AI assistant gives one of your travellers the wrong answer – that’s your traveller stranded and your problem to fix.”

So, what should trustworthy AI in managed travel actually look like? The emerging consensus points to a handful of markers, and none of them are glamorous.

The first is controlled information. A general-purpose chatbot draws on the open internet, which is precisely why it can be confidently wrong. AI built for managed travel should work differently, drawing its answers from defined, verified sources: the company’s own travel policy, its booking data and its traveller profiles. The answer to “can I fly business class on this route?” should come from the organisation’s policy document, never from a general source, because the question isn’t really whether a traveller can. It’s whether they may.

“Of course, there are different intelligence layers,” says Mafojane, referring to Sam, the AI solution (or intelligent travel companion) built into the FCM Platform, which went live for customers in more than 90 countries in June. “If your traveller wants to know the current temperature in Munich, plus a packing list, Sam draws on general sources. If a travel arranger wants the most up-to-date visa requirements, Sam will draw on specialist sources, and if it’s a question of policy, Sam will draw on pre-approved and pre-loaded documents. The guardrails are in place, and Sam is built with accuracy, security and privacy at its core.”

The second is governance. Travel managers should be able to configure how an AI assistant responds to specific types of queries, so that spend thresholds, approval workflows and supplier preferences are enforced automatically in every interaction. A traveller who isn’t entitled to a premium fare should never be shown one.

“This is where the conversation has matured,” says Mafojane. “Two years ago, companies asked what AI could do. Now they ask how it’s controlled. Can I decide which sources it uses? Will it apply my policy consistently across the board? Those are governance questions, and any provider serious about corporate travel should welcome them.”

The third marker is data privacy, and for Mafojane it’s never been more important.

“Where is company data stored? Is it ever used to train public AI models? Who can see it? In a trustworthy setup, the answers are specific: data is held in a private, secure environment, never fed into public models, with access – and information – restricted to the right people.”

The final marker is the one most often overlooked: knowing when the technology should step aside. Disruption, complex itineraries and emergencies still call for human judgement, and well-designed AI recognises the limits of what it can resolve accurately.

As Mafojane explains, the test is what happens at the point of escalation. If a traveller has to re-explain their situation from scratch to the consultant who picks up, the system has failed them at the moment it mattered most.

“Humans and AI have to work hand in hand. The technology handles the hundredth policy question so our consultants can spend their time on the situations that need experience and care. As an example, when Sam escalates a request to one of our travel experts, the consultant already has the full context in conversation. The traveller never starts over. That’s what builds trust, one interaction at a time.”

For travel managers weighing up AI this year, the practical advice is to interrogate rather than admire. Ask any provider where its AI gets its answers and how accuracy is assured. Ask how your travel policy is enforced within each conversation. Ask where your data lives and whether it ever touches a public model. And ask what happens, in detail, when the AI reaches its limit and a human needs to take over.

Providers with precise answers to those questions are ready for the realities of corporate travel. And that, rather than any dazzling demo, is what earns AI a place in a travel programme: information you can rely on, controls you can prove and people exactly where you need them.

It’s a remarkable feat of engineering. It’s also, if we’re honest, a long time to spend in seat 47E. Which raises a question: if work required it, would you strap in for the ultra-long-haul?

Before you answer, “that’s Australia’s problem”, consider this. South African business travellers are already seasoned ultra-long-haul flyers. Delta’s Johannesburg to Atlanta service runs to over 16 and a half hours. United flies non-stop from Joburg and Cape Town to Newark – both around 15 and a half hours. Interestingly, neither breaks into the world’s top 10 longest non-stop flights, which routinely run between 17h 35m and 19h 15m (New York JFK to Singapore). As the flights get longer, the world continues to get smaller.

“South Africans are already flying 15, 16, nearly 17 hours right now, often in economy, and often going straight into a meeting upon landing,” says Herman Heunes, General Manager at Corporate Traveller South Africa. “Project Sunrise is a reminder to relook your travel policy and ask: what does a company owe a traveller it puts on a flight like that?”

A different category of travel

Here’s the thing the airlines have already figured out: ultra-long-haul is a fundamentally different product to ordinary long-haul – and they’re building accordingly.

Qantas didn’t simply order more planes. It commissioned a purpose-built aircraft, the Airbus A350-1000ULR (Ultra Long Range), with an extra fuel tank and a deliberately roomy cabin of just 238 passengers (where a standard A350-1000 typically seats 350-400 passengers). It brought in sleep and nutrition scientists from the University of Sydney’s Charles Perkins Centre. The aircraft features a dedicated Wellbeing Zone for stretching and movement, plus 12 custom lighting scenes designed around circadian rhythms to nudge your body clock towards its destination while you cruise over the North Pole.

Singapore Airlines, which holds the current record with its Singapore to New York service, made an even blunter design choice. Its ultra-long-range aircraft has no economy cabin at all. Just 161 seats, all business and premium economy. The airline that knows more about ultra-long-haul flying than anyone on earth quietly concluded that economy seating and 19 hours don’t belong in the same sentence.

If airlines are treating these flights as a separate category, travel policies probably should too.

What your travel policy should actually say

This is where the conversation gets practical, for travellers and for the people who book on their behalf. A sensible ultra-long-haul policy covers a number of things:

Lie-flat above a defined threshold. Pick a number, say 12 hours, above which lie-flat seating is standard. The math is simple: a traveller who sleeps arrives able to work, and a traveller who spends 15 hours upright arrives physically exhausted and unproductive.

Lounge access at both ends. The journey includes the hours around the flight. A shower, a proper meal and a quiet place to work before boarding (and after landing) cost a fraction of the fare and change the entire experience.

A recovery buffer on arrival. The rough science of jet lag is that your body adjusts about one time zone per day (depending on whether you’re flying east or west). Landing at 06:00 and presenting to a client at 09:00 is a big, big ask. Build in a 24-hour buffer before the first commitment.

Rest days on the return leg. For flights crossing multiple time zones or exceeding 12 hours, companies often grant one full, paid “rest day” before a return to standard duties and expectations.

Early check-in (or late check-out). If an employee lands early in the morning and must work that afternoon, travel bookers may negotiate early check-in so the traveller can sleep, shower and change before the meeting.

Flexible ground transportation. Taking public transport or driving a rental car after a 12-hour flight is another big ask (especially if a traveller is landing in a foreign city). Policies generally mandate expensing an airport shuttle, chauffeured ride or taxi to eliminate the danger of fatigued driving.

Pre-trip health screenings. Some corporate policies recommend or fund medical consultations for frequent flyers on ultra-long-haul routes to manage risks like deep vein thrombosis (DVT).

Ancillary expenses. Think preferred seating fees (nabbing extra legroom in emergency exit rows or bulkhead seats) or in-flight Wi-Fi.

“None of this is about pampering people,” says Heunes. “It’s duty of care, and it’s protecting the investment. If a company is spending tens of thousands of rands to put someone on the other side of the planet, the marginal cost of making sure that person arrives functional is the best money spent across the whole trip.”

But we’re an SME, not a bank

Fair. Blanket business class policies are a luxury many smaller travel programmes simply can’t carry. But as Heunes explains, there’s a wide middle ground between “business class for everyone” and “good luck in the back”, and this is precisely where a travel expert earns their keep: smarter routings, fare classes with upgrade potential, well-timed stopovers, loyalty programmes put to proper work, negotiated rates and premium economy deployed where it genuinely helps.

It’s also worth saying that non-stop is not automatically better. For some travellers, a one-stop itinerary with a shower and a stretch in Singapore, Dubai or Doha beats the record-breaker comfortably. A good policy allows that choice rather than defaulting to the shortest elapsed time on the screen.

“The best itinerary is the one that gets the job done properly,” says Heunes. “Sometimes that’s the non-stop; sometimes it’s the sensible stopover. What it should never be is whatever happened to be cheapest on the day, with the traveller left to absorb the consequences.”

So, are you in?

There’s something thrilling about the Sydney to London non-stop: three meal services, two sunrises and a piece of aviation history from a single seat. Plenty of travellers will board it out of sheer curiosity.

But whether it’s a bucket-list adventure or a 22-hour endurance test depends far less on your personal stamina than on what your company wraps around the flight.

“Ask questions before the trip, not after it,” Heunes says. “If your travel policy was written when your longest flight was 11 hours to London, it’s due an update. The flights are getting longer. The policy should be getting smarter.”

Border and customs compliance has always been something you dealt with at the airport. Not anymore. South Africa’s new mandatory online Traveller Declaration, which came into effect on 1 July 2026, is the latest signal in a global shift that has been building for years.

Governments now want your information before you even board your flight, and for business travellers running on tight itineraries and even tighter margins, that shift has consequences.

“The SARS Traveller Declaration is a fundamental change in when compliance happens. The border has moved, and it’s moved to 24 hours before departure. Business travellers who don’t adjust their pre-trip habits and routine are going to feel it,” says Herman Heunes, General Manager at Corporate Traveller South Africa.

An emerging global pattern

South Africa is joining a growing cohort of governments that have decided the old model of processing travellers at the point of entry is too slow, too manual, and too reactive.

The UK’s Electronic Travel Authorisation, now required for millions of previously visa-exempt visitors, must also be secured before boarding. The EU’s ETIAS system, expected to launch late 2026, adds a pre-departure authorisation layer for travellers who previously needed nothing more than a valid passport. Across Asia, countries including Thailand and Indonesia have introduced or expanded digital arrival and declaration systems (the Thailand Digital Arrival Card and All Indonesia Arrival Card, respectively) that replace the paper cards travellers once filled in on the plane. Ethiopia, meanwhile, requires all arriving and transiting passengers to complete an online Traveler’s Health Declaration Form before arrival at Addis Ababa Bole International Airport.

The architecture is different in each case (some are entry authorisations, others are customs declarations or health declarations), but the direction is identical.

Pre-travel. Digital. Mandatory.

“What we’re seeing globally is the rise of the smart border,” says Heunes. “Information moves ahead of the traveller. That’s better for governments, and ultimately better for travellers who are prepared. But it creates a new category of risk for anyone who treats pre-trip admin as an afterthought.”

What the SARS declaration actually means for business travellers

The new SARS Traveller Declaration is a manageable addition to the pre-trip checklist for leisure travellers with a suitcase of personal belongings. They simply complete it within 24 hours of departure, keep the confirmation on their phone, and proceed as normal.

However, for business travellers, it’s slightly more complex. The declaration requires passport details, travel information, contact details, and – critically – disclosure of any goods, currency, or items that fall outside personal use. Business equipment, product samples, gifts intended for clients, commercial goods, and cash above the R100,000 threshold all require declaration. Allowances cannot be combined between travellers, and goods exceeding the duty-free threshold trigger further customs assessment.

Importantly, this is not a form to rush through. SARS has been unambiguous on the consequences – failure to declare, or making a false declaration, can result in delays, detention of goods, penalties, or enforcement action under customs legislation. For a business traveller catching an early morning flight to close a deal, none of those outcomes are acceptable.

“If samples or goods get held at customs, the real cost is the stress and disruption that ripples into expos, meetings and other commitments,” says Heunes. “That’s why the declaration needs to be part of the travel workflow rather than something forgotten about until check-in.”

The compliance gap that travel management closes

The uncomfortable truth for many SMEs is that the systems designed to streamline border processing actually increase the pre-trip burden on anyone without a managed travel programme. Leisure travellers have time and flexibility; large corporates have compliance infrastructure. SMEs and smaller businesses (the ones most likely to be sending their MD on a last-minute flight to Nairobi or their sales lead to a trade show in Frankfurt) are most exposed to the gap between “booked” and “compliant”.

The new normal for business travel looks something like this: a traveller needs not just a valid passport and a booking confirmation, but potentially (depending on their passport) an ETA or ETIAS authorisation, a completed customs declaration, and documented details of any goods or currency they’re carrying – all resolved before they reach the airport.

“Managed travel was always about more than getting the best fare,” says Heunes. “It was about making sure the trip actually works. That’s truer now than it’s ever been. A good travel booker is securing flights while, more importantly, ensuring their travellers are actually ready to travel.”

The companies that will navigate this new landscape most effectively are those that treat compliance as part of the travel booking process rather than a separate responsibility left to the traveller to figure out alone.

What to do now

The practical adjustment is straightforward, even if the habit change takes time. Add the SARS Traveller Declaration to your pre-trip checklist alongside passport validity, visa requirements, online check-in and boarding pass. Complete it within 24 hours of departure, keeping the confirmation accessible. If you’re carrying business equipment, commercial goods, or significant currency, give yourself time to complete the declaration accurately.

More broadly: check entry requirements for each and every destination earlier than you used to.

“The era of the paper form at the airport is ending. The new compliance window opens long before departure, and for business travellers, that window needs to be part of the plan,” Heunes concludes.

Side bar: Corporate Traveller’s latest Travel Advisory covers everything you need to know about SA’s new Traveller Declaration, including links to SARS’ FAQs and a quick video tutorial: https://www.corporatetraveller.co.za/en-za/resources/news/sars-online-traveller-declaration-now-required

For SMEs and smaller corporates, business travel has to count. A three-day trip has no slack built into it. A bag that goes missing, or time lost at the airport as you sort it out, isn’t a minor irritation. It can impact your mood – and derail your day.

“Carry-on-only used to be a personal preference,” says Herman Heunes, GM of Corporate Traveller South Africa. “Today it’s a considered decision, one that touches on cost, risk and carbon all at once.”

Here’s why carry-on-only is one of the smartest travel policies you can adopt in 2026, and exactly how to pull it off.

Why it’s worth the squeeze

Your bag is safer in your hand. SITA’s 2026 Baggage IT Insights report, released at the end of June, shows global baggage mishandling improved by 23% last year. The catch for us? Africa recorded the highest mishandling rate in the world at 12.1 bags per 1,000 passengers, around two and a half times the global average, with international routes to and from the continent averaging 15 per 1,000. On a three-day trip, day one is usually a meeting day. There’s no buffer for shopping – or a courier to deliver your suit.

It’s cheaper and getting more so. Checked baggage fees are climbing worldwide. In April, major US airlines (like United, Delta and JetBlue) all raised bag fees within a single week, largely to offset climbing jet fuel costs. Closer to home, a checked bag added at the airport on a domestic carrier can cost two to three times the pre-booked online rate.

It’s lighter on your carbon footprint. Aircraft emissions are directly tied to weight, and for passenger aircraft, approximately 50% of the weight is the plane itself, 30% is fuel, and the rest is split between passengers, baggage and belly-hold freight. Your suitcase is a tiny slice of that, but it’s the only slice you control.

It makes you disruption-proof. When a flight is grounded, everything you own is in a small wheelie bag at your side, so you can join the rebooking queue, race to a new gate or take a seat on a different plane without a second thought. The checked-bag passenger is anchored to a suitcase somewhere in the bowels of the airport or belly of the plane.

“One lost or delayed bag won’t sink a trip, but it makes everything harder than it needs to be,” says Heunes. “Packing light is a small habit with an outsized return.”

The 3-day formula

Clothing: Pick one colour “family”, for example, navy or charcoal, so every top works with every bottom. Wear your full first-day outfit and heaviest shoes on the plane, then pack two shirts, one spare pair of trousers, sleepwear and three sets of underwear. It’s a similar approach to the  viral “sudoku” packing method, where you select 3 tops, 3 bottoms and 3 layering pieces. By arranging these 9 items in a 3×3 grid where every vertical and horizontal row functions as a complete outfit, you can create up to 27 distinct styling combinations. And remember, merino wool and some technical fabrics shrug off creases and resist odour naturally, allowing for multiple wears between washes.

Toiletries: Solid bars for shampoo and deodorant sidestep the liquids limit entirely (and avoid spills). Decant the rest into sub-100ml containers and let the hotel supply the basics.

Hairdryer: A hairdryer is permitted in your hand luggage, but unless you have a dinky travel-sized one, it can take up a lot of space. Another solution? Check out your hotel’s room amenity list in advance. Most will have hairdryers; if not, ask for one at reception.

Tech: One multi-plug adaptor, one cable per connector type and a power bank, which must travel in the cabin anyway. Nothing else.

Documents: Go digital. For example, Corporate Traveller’s Melon Mobile app keeps all your trip details in one place, alerts you to any flight changes or cancellations and automatically updates your itinerary accordingly. Keep your laptop, medication and valuables in your under-seat bag in case your carry-on gets checked at the front of the plane (or on the jet bridge or steps) – which can happen if the overhead bins are full.

The details that save you: Weigh your bag at home; South African carriers actively enforce the 7kg cabin limit at the gate on busy routes, and an overweight carry-on costs far more at the airport than a bag booked online. Packing cubes compress brilliantly but add nothing to your weight allowance. And if you genuinely must check a bag, book it the moment you book the flight, and drop a tracker (like an Apple AirTag) inside. Three days, one bag, zero time at the carousel. Once you’ve breezed past baggage reclaim straight into your first meeting, you won’t ever go back.

Instead, Corporate Traveller’s data points to something more interesting: a marked increase in trip duration. The insights form part of Corporate Traveller’s latest report: The smarter business travel guide for finance leaders.

As Juliette Da Silva, CFO of Flight Centre Travel Group South Africa explains, in 2024, the average business trip length was 3.21 days. In 2025 it jumped to 5.31 days – a 65% increase year-on-year.

“Companies are batching their meetings,” says Da Silva. “Travellers are visiting multiple stakeholders and combining market visits that would previously have been split into three separate trips. If you’re going to incur the cost and the traveller disruption of getting on a plane, you want to maximise the return on that journey.”

It’s also called trip stacking and Herman Heunes, General Manager of Corporate Traveller South Africa, sees the shift play out in booking patterns every day.

“The trips we’re booking in 2026 look nothing like the trips we were booking in 2023,” he says. “Clients are coming to us with bigger, more complex itineraries – multi-city, multi-stakeholder, often spanning a week or more. What used to be three separate Johannesburg-to-Cape Town hops for three different meetings has become one trip that does all three plus a client dinner and a team workshop on the way through.”

That shift has changed how Corporate Traveller’s client conversations unfold, Heunes adds.

“Five years ago, a lot of our cost conversations were around securing the best airfare. Now they’re about trip design: how you sequence meetings, where you base yourself, which hotel is actually closest to your three client sites rather than the one with the cheapest headline rate. Those decisions often save more money than a fare negotiation ever would.”

The behavioural shift is healthy for both ROI and traveller wellness, but it’s shifting where budget pressure shows up.

“Longer trips mean more hotel nights,” says Da Silva. “And South African hotel rates have been climbing steadily over the last three years – from an average room night of R1,050 in 2023 to R1,301 in 2025. So, while companies are getting better value per trip, they also need to be watching accommodation spend much more closely than they used to.”

Similarly, average international rates have climbed from R2,424 in 2023 to R2,877 in 2025. For a finance leader whose travel programme is still measured primarily on airfare savings, that’s a blind spot worth closing.

Both Da Silva and Heunes agree that travel policies need to catch up with traveller behaviour.

“The longer-trip, higher-ROI pattern should be baked into policy, not treated as an exception,” Heunes says. “If batching meetings is the new normal, your policy should actively encourage it. That means flexibility on minimum stay duration, smart advance-purchase requirements, and preferred supplier relationships that reward the kind of multi-night bookings your travellers are now making.”

Put simply, companies can save money in a number of ways: booking in advance (and as Da Silva notes, advance booking windows are already lengthening, up to 17.9 days in 2025), leveraging loyalty programmes, and exploring alternate accommodation options including guesthouses. Geographic clustering – combining multiple close destinations into a single trip – cuts airfare costs, while negotiating midweek rates lowers accommodation spend.

Da Silva frames it as a broader mindset shift.

“South African companies aren’t travelling less because business travel matters less,” Da Silva says. “The value of business travel is not in question. Instead, they’re travelling differently, stretching the return on every journey and tightening the discipline around when and how trips get booked. In today’s economic environment you have to make sure every rand counts. The companies doing this well are treating travel less as a line-item cost and more as a managed investment – and using current conditions as an opportunity to reset policies, renegotiate supplier agreements, and build programmes that flex with market volatility.”

For a closer look at the data – and a practical framework for managing travel spend in volatile conditions – download Corporate Traveller’s latest report here.

-ENDS–

MEDIA CONTACT

For more information about Corporate Traveller, or to interview Corporate Traveller South Africa GM Herman Heunes, call Sonnette Fourie on 081 072 2869 or email sonnette@bigambitions.co.za.    

About Corporate Traveller

Corporate Traveller is a division of the Flight Centre Travel Group, dedicated to saving businesses across Southern Africa time and money. Corporate Traveller has the benefit of being part of the world’s third-largest travel retailer, leveraging its global negotiating strength. It has access to over 50 of the world’s leading airlines and deals with more than 100 000 hotels around the world to guarantee savings for clients. Corporate Traveller provides clear, consolidated reporting of all its clients’ travel activities, helping them to control travel spend and identify opportunities to save costs.

Issued by:

Big Ambitions

Sonnette Fourie

sonnette@bigambitions.co.za

+27 81 072 2869

The reason, according to Mummy Mafojane, General Manager of FCM Southern Africa, is a more seasoned South African business traveller relying on muscle memory from the COVID pandemic.

“COVID put every South African business traveller through an intensive education in travel risk: reading advisories, understanding what their insurance actually covers, knowing who to call when an itinerary falls apart. That knowledge doesn’t disappear between crises. When an Ebola alert comes through, our clients don’t reach for the cancel button. They ask the right questions. That’s a completely different starting point,” she explains.

Africa already had prior experience with Ebola. The West African crisis of 2014 to 2016 and the DRC outbreak of 2018 to 2020 stress-tested the continent’s travel managers before COVID arrived. What the COVID pandemic added was scale and personal exposure: for the first time, every traveller in every market had to personally navigate entry requirements, refund claims, insurance conditions, and advisories that changed within hours. South African business travellers learned all of it, under pressure.

Those skills didn’t expire when borders reopened.

From blanket bans to surgical adjustments

The defining feature of pre-2020 outbreak response was its bluntness. Whole regions were placed on red lists. An Ebola case in Liberia would trigger cancellations across sub-Saharan Africa, regardless of geography. The tools available to travel managers were not built for precision, and so they defaulted to the only instrument they had: stop everything.

What has emerged since is a fundamentally different operating model. “The shift we’ve seen is from blanket responses to surgical ones. When an Ebola alert is issued today, the question is no longer ‘do we stop all travel to the continent?’ It’s ‘which of our travellers are within a meaningful distance of the affected zone, and what do we do specifically for them?’ That’s a completely different way of working,” says Mafojane.

Dynamic tracking sits at the centre of it. Travel management platforms now maintain a live picture of where every managed traveller is at any given moment, cross-referenced against a continuously updated map of global advisories, health alerts, and security incidents. When a region is reclassified, the system already knows whether anyone is there. The travel manager doesn’t need to send a company-wide email asking people to check in. Affected individuals are identified automatically, and their options are already being assessed.

If a zone in northern Italy is flagged as a new hotspot, the platform knows within minutes which business travellers are in it. Not the country. The zone.

The South African traveller who genuinely upskilled

The infrastructure story is only half of it. The other half is the traveller. “What we’re seeing is a traveller who has genuinely upskilled. COVID was an intensive, involuntary masterclass in travel risk management. Our clients came out of it knowing their rights, understanding the difference between a travel advisory level and an outright ban, and trusting that with the right support structure in place, they can navigate most situations,” says Mafojane.

This attitude to risk shows up in a specific and telling way: South African corporate travellers are now asking the right questions before they travel, not after something has gone wrong. What is the current advisory level for my destination? Does my insurance cover outbreak-related disruption specifically? What are my entitlements if my airline makes a significant schedule change? What is the emergency line?

These are no longer questions that surface in a crisis. They are pre-travel standard practice for the traveller and for the travel manager alike.

The safety net that’s already deployed

Much of what has changed in corporate travel risk management is invisible to travellers precisely because it’s working.

Medical assistance partnerships now provide 24-hour support for travellers facing health emergencies abroad, including repatriation coordination that would previously have required days of negotiation. Travel insurance has been substantially revised since 2020, with outbreak and conflict scenarios now explicitly addressed rather than buried in exclusion clauses. Duty-of-care obligations – once a vague principle in corporate policy documents – have become operational realities with defined response protocols and technology to back them.

“What gives travellers confidence is knowing that the safety net is already deployed, they don’t have to activate it themselves. The tracking is live. The alerts are automated. The emergency line is staffed. Before they’ve even landed, the system is already watching the environment around them,” says Mafojane.

The result is a market that responds to Ebola news the way a seasoned pilot responds to turbulence: with attention, adjustment, and without panic. The blanket corporate travel ban is becoming an artefact of an era before the industry knew better.