Tourists are cancelling trips to South Africa due to the rise of xenophobia. (Photo: Wikipedia) Tafadzwa Chitandara had been planning her first proper holiday in South Africa for months. The Zimbabwean national, who had previously visited the country only for shopping trips, had this year decided on something different, a leisure trip to Cape Town, bringing her family to see Table Mountain with accommodation booked in Sea Point.
She will not be going.
“When we started hearing and seeing the news online, specifically a video of a Zimbabwean being victimised at the exact place where we had booked, we thought South Africa might not be a perfect holiday destination for us,” Chitandara told Daily Maverick.
She is not alone. Visitors across the SADC region and beyond are quietly making the same calculation and arriving at the same answer. As the anti-foreigner movement that has been building throughout the year continues to convulse South African cities, a secondary crisis is taking shape; the country is losing the tourists it relies on most.
A regional reconsideration
After threads on Facebook and X began to surface, with tourists expressing frustration over their cancelled trips, Daily Maverick spoke to several foreign nationals to find out what was driving them away and whether South Africa’s intensifying anti-foreigner movement was at the root of it.
For Valdez Bubutela (33), a meteorologist based in Maputo, Mozambique, the images circulating on social media made his decision straightforward. After months of planning, his second trip to Johannesburg will not be happening any time soon. “Until the government takes responsibility and the correct judicial processes are followed, I will not set foot in South Africa,” he said.
From Malawi, Mayamiko Chipwete (37) had been looking forward to a business trip to Durban, scheduled for the first week of July, when news of the protests reached him. His response was unambiguous. “I do not have a wish to die in South Africa,” he said.
Enoch Mulenga (31), a Zambian national, had been looking forward to watching Ne-Yo perform live in Pretoria in October with his fiancée, a trip that required hotel bookings and concert tickets, bought in advance. He has since cancelled both. “All international artists come to South Africa for their tours, and we all want to go there to see them,” he said. “With what is happening, it is sad that I will not be able to see one of my favourite musicians perform live.”
Across all accounts, the pattern is consistent; it is not government advisories or formal travel warnings driving these cancellations, but social media. Graphic videos, first-person accounts and shared news articles have done what no official communication has managed to undo.
Despite efforts by the Department of International Relations and Cooperation to reassure the continent, the visitors Daily Maverick spoke to are unconvinced.
Minister Ronald Lamola has been unequivocal in his condemnation. “There is no excuse for violence against foreign nationals in our society. Violence directed at migrants and refugees is a blight on our democracy and a betrayal of our Constitution’s promise of dignity, equality, and fundamental human rights for all,” he said in a speech delivered at the 2026 Conference of Speakers and Presiding Officers of the Commonwealth on 16 June.
“I think if we were to visit South Africa right now as Zimbabweans, we would be victimised,” Chitandara said. “The anti-foreign movements in SA do not care whether you are in the country legally or not.”
Protest, amplified
Anti-immigrant protests in South Africa escalated significantly in April, with major marches led by movements such as March and March sweeping through Pretoria and Durban from mid- to late May before spreading to Johannesburg and Cape Town. Human Rights Watch, in a report released in May, warned of a new wave of xenophobic attacks targeting African and Asian foreign nationals, with vigilante groups taking part in violent incidents with little apparent response from police.
What began on the streets has since hardened into an ultimatum. March and March have set a 30 June deadline for undocumented migrants to leave the country, threatening a national shutdown if their demands go unmet. For visitors across the region, watching all of this unfold on their timelines, there is little reason to think twice about their decision to stay away.
The cost of hostility
The cancellations are no longer unsubstantiated. According to Stats SA, travellers from across the African continent in 2025 accounted for three-quarters (75.2%) of all international tourist arrivals in South Africa, driving demand for accommodation, transport, food services and informal trade. Tourism’s broader contribution to the economy reached R361.7-billion, or 4.9% of GDP, in 2024.
Federated Hospitality Association of South Africa national chairperson Brett Tungay told SABC that the hospitality and tourism sector was uniquely positioned to absorb South Africa’s unemployment crisis. “The broader economic effect is unfortunately negative, not only to foreign markets, but also to the domestic markets,” he said.
The damage is not only economic. Ghana formally issued a travel advisory on 1 June 2026, advising its citizens to avoid non-essential travel to South Africa. Countries including Malawi, Ghana, Zimbabwe and Mozambique have gone further, evacuating or assisting nationals caught up in anti-immigrant violence.
During a media briefing by the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Migration on Friday, Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development Mmamoloko Kubayi acknowledged that the anti-immigrant protests are damaging the country’s image, including its business and arts sector.
She further warned that vigilantism and the targeting of individuals would not be tolerated. “Vigilantism, looting and the targeting of individuals based on nationality are criminal acts that will be met with the full force of the law,” she said.
For a sector that spent years recovering from the travel shocks of the Covid-19 pandemic and carefully rebuilding its international reputation, the timing could not be worse.
Author and commentator on African business affairs Victor Kgomoeswana told the SABC that the unrest was not conducive to South Africa’s trade relations or economic diplomacy on the continent. “Seventy percent of tourists visiting South Africa come from the African continent. These visitors tend to stay longer and spend more with small and medium enterprises, which is good for the kind of economic growth activity we need in this country,” he said.
Going elsewhere
The question South Africa now faces is not only who is staying away, but where they are going instead. For Chitandara, the answer is Zambia, a destination she has returned to on previous holidays. “We are used to visiting countries where it is peaceful and safe. In Zambia, we could walk even at night without fear of being victimised,” she said. She said her love of nature is what drew her to Cape Town in the first place, with its historic landscapes and vibrant culture.
Bubutela is not dismissive of South Africa’s appeal. “The country has an identity and a rich culture,” he said. “Goods are cheaper, and that is why Mozambicans enjoy travelling to South Africa”.
“I will just visit places around Mozambique for holidays,” he said.
This isn’t the first time Mulenga has planned things around South Africa’s live music scene. He attended a Chris Brown concert back in 2024, and as someone who works in the music industry in Zambia, he watches the region’s international profile closely.
“The SADC region in general is getting noticed internationally. A lot of entities are investing in our nations, and with these current movements, it does not paint a good picture at all in the international arena,” he told Daily Maverick.
Kgomoeswana elaborated on the broader trade implications for South Africa. “This is not conducive to trade relations or economic diplomacy of South Africa on the rest of the continent,” he said. DM