{"id":883921,"date":"2026-11-15T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-11-15T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=883921"},"modified":"2026-11-13T16:55:46","modified_gmt":"2026-11-13T14:55:46","slug":"south-africa-comes-on-top-in-another-global-award","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/lifestyle\/883921\/south-africa-comes-on-top-in-another-global-award\/","title":{"rendered":"South Africa comes on top in another global award"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

South Africa earned several accolades in Wanderlust’s recently published Reader Travel Awards, including gold in one category.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The annual awards are decided by votes from readers of Wanderlust, the UK’s longest-running travel magazine, and feature several categories related to travel and international vacations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In its ranking of the most desirable countries in the world, South Africa placed third, behind Japan in second and Costa Rica in the top spot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

South Africa also received gold in the awards in the Most Desirable Destination for Nature & Wildlife category.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wanderlust noted that this award was fitting for South Africa, due to its variety of natural landmarks and tourist attractions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“In the year Kruger National Park marked its 100th anniversary, it\u2019s perhaps fitting that one of Africa\u2019s great pioneers of conservation takes the top spot in this category,” the magazine said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“South Africa remains a benchmark for wildlife travel, due in part to the sheer variety on offer, from the red dunes and black-maned lions of the Kalahari to tracking rhinos on foot in the bushveld and cruising the wetlands of iSimangaliso.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other countries in this category included Brazil and Australia in second and third place, respectively, while Kenya placed fourth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The global recognition was decided by votes from over 250,000 Wanderlust readers, with more than 8.2 million votes cast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The awards are intended to “celebrate the best destinations, tour operators and travel brands, including the most sought-after countries, cities, islands and regions in Europe and around the world,” Wanderlust said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Along with South Africa itself being named in two categories, Cape Town was listed as the third most desirable city in the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Western Cape capital placed behind Argentina’s Buenos Aires in second place and Tokyo, Japan, in first place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In last year’s edition of the Reader Travel Awards, Cape Town placed fourth in the same category, representing a one-place climb.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A meaningful award<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Cape Town Tourism noted that the recognition from Wanderlust is particularly meaningful due to the awards’ methodology and the magazine’s stature.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The Wanderlust Reader Travel Awards are decided entirely by public vote, with no expert panel behind closed doors,” Cape Town Tourism noted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“That makes them the UK’s largest consumer-voted travel awards, celebrating the most desirable countries, cities, islands, regions, tour operators and travel brands.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The tourism group added that recognition from UK travellers was particularly meaningful for the city, with residents of the country accounting for a large share of its tourism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“For Cape Town, the UK remains its largest international source market, making recognition from the readership of a leading UK travel publication especially meaningful,” Cape Town Tourism said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2025, Cape Town had approximately 211,000 international visitors from the UK, a 17% jump from the prior year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

International visitors have also become a major part of Cape Town’s tourism economy in recent years, with over 1.5 million travellers from around the world arriving in the city in 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tourism plays a large part in supporting the city’s economy, with an estimated 106,000 people employed in the sector, representing 6.2% of Cape Town’s total employed population.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The industry also adds roughly R23 billion in gross value to the city’s economy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

City of Cape Town spokesperson Luthando Tyhalibongo said the award helped boost the city’s profile on the international stage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Recognition like this helps keep Cape Town front of mind for international travellers, creating opportunities for more bookings, more visitor spend and more jobs for Capetonians,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He added that the city would be working towards improving its ranking, saying, “Bronze looks good on us, but gold would look even better.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

South Africa has received two accolades from one of the UK’s largest travel publications, with Cape Town also being recognised.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":131,"featured_media":867163,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"posted","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"2121877120309719539","_sma_facebook_post_id":"191437357620492_2274187876734944","_sma_instagram_post_id":"18389271430239353","_sma_x_attempts":1,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9876],"tags":[23123,27103,27102],"class_list":["post-883921","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lifestyle","tag-cape-town-tourism","tag-luthando-tyhalibongo","tag-wanderlust"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/883921","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/131"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=883921"}],"version-history":[{"count":21,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/883921\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":884252,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/883921\/revisions\/884252"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/867163"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=883921"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=883921"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=883921"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}