Southern Sun, a major Southern African hotel group, reports pressure on regional travel as anti-immigrant protests fuel safety concerns, despite rising group occupancy and international tourist arrivals.
Anti-immigrant protests are weighing on regional travel to South Africa, according to Southern Sun, highlighting a demand risk for hotels serving visitors from neighbouring countries even as national tourism figures rise.
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In a trading update on 9 September, Southern Sun said anti-immigrant protests had affected travel from the Southern African Development Community (SADC), a regional bloc that includes many of South Africa’s neighbouring countries.
Travellers had become more cautious about visiting the country, the group reported.
The warning points to an uneven market, with events and conferences supporting hotel performance while regional transient travel — individual bookings outside organised groups — remains under pressure.
A recurring wave of xenophobic violence
South Africa has experienced repeated waves of xenophobic hostility and violence against migrants, particularly people from other African countries, since the end of apartheid.
In 2008, attacks across the country killed 62 people, including foreign nationals, and displaced tens of thousands. Further violence in 2015 killed several people and forced thousands of foreign nationals from their homes.
In 2019, another wave of attacks left at least 12 people dead according to official figures, while thousands were displaced and foreign-owned businesses were looted. Human Rights Watch has documented repeated attacks and concerns about the limited accountability for those responsible.
The latest escalation began in 2026, as anti-immigrant groups organised demonstrations demanding tougher action against undocumented migration. The movement March and March called for undocumented foreign nationals to leave the country by 30 June, an unofficial deadline that heightened tensions and prompted many migrants to flee or seek repatriation.
The organisation has presented its campaign as a call for stricter immigration enforcement, while denying that it advocates violence.
Protesters have blamed migrants for unemployment, crime and pressure on public services. However, such claims risk directing public frustration over complex economic and social problems towards foreign nationals. President Cyril Ramaphosa has warned against scapegoating migrants.
The implications extend beyond the communities directly affected. For the tourism industry, repeated reports of hostility towards foreign nationals can raise concerns among potential visitors from other African countries, even when they are travelling legally for business or leisure.
Events support hotel occupancy
Southern Sun’s group-wide occupancy increased to 60.2% for the five months ended 31 August 2026, from 57.8% a year earlier. The rise of 2.4 percentage points accompanied a 9.5% increase in average room rates and 12% growth in total revenue.
Events, group bookings and conferences in the Western Cape and Gauteng supported its South African operations, alongside New Zealand’s rugby tour in August. Sports and association business also supported conference demand in KwaZulu-Natal.
However, transient travel and domestic leisure demand remained subdued. The group cited pressure on disposable incomes and anti-immigrant protests affecting SADC-related travel.
Southern Sun did not quantify cancellations, lost room nights or revenue attributable specifically to the protests. The figures therefore show the pressure on regional travel alongside stronger overall trading, but do not establish the financial cost of the unrest.
Regional tourism remains important
Visitors from African countries account for most of South Africa’s international tourist arrivals. Statistics South Africa reported that SADC countries contributed 75.2% of tourist arrivals in 2025, with other African countries accounting for a further 1.9%.
These figures underline the importance of regional visitors, but they do not establish their share of hotel room nights or revenue. Each property’s exposure will depend on its location, customer mix and reliance on cross-border business and leisure travel.
National tourism figures nevertheless show continued growth. South Africa received 6.58 million international tourists between January and July 2026, up 12.4% compared with the same period in 2025, according to the Department of Tourism. Arrivals from Africa increased by 14.3%, while overseas arrivals grew by 5.7%.
The growth provides context for Southern Sun’s warning, but does not establish whether arrivals would have been higher without the unrest. Nor does it show how individual hotels, source markets or travel segments performed.
For hotel operators, rising national arrivals and weaker demand in a particular market can occur at the same time. The distinction is important when assessing revenue forecasts and the performance of individual properties.
Renewed violence adds uncertainty
Anti-migrant protests turned violent in Johannesburg’s Soweto township and Durban on 8 October, with vehicles set alight and foreign-owned shops looted, Reuters reported. The government attributed the unrest partly to disinformation about a Constitutional Court ruling on access to the asylum system.
The ruling concerned the right of asylum seekers to have their applications considered, rather than granting automatic refugee or residency status. The subsequent unrest led the government to withdraw a directive on asylum applications.
These incidents occurred after Southern Sun’s trading period and the tourism figures cited above. Their effect on subsequent hotel bookings cannot yet be assessed from those data.
For hotels serving regional markets, the renewed violence adds uncertainty to forward demand. It also raises questions about how concerns over personal safety may influence travel decisions and South Africa’s reputation as a destination for business and leisure.
What hotel operators should monitor
Southern Sun’s experience illustrates the value of assessing source-market performance alongside headline occupancy.
Hotel revenue and commercial teams should monitor regional booking pace, cancellations, room nights and revenue by property and source market. Recording cancellation reasons can help distinguish safety concerns from affordability pressures and other factors affecting demand.
Events and conferences may support overall trading while concealing weaker individual bookings on other dates or at properties with a different customer mix. Understanding these differences can help operators identify emerging risks and adjust sales and revenue strategies.
Southern Sun’s update provides evidence of pressure on regional travel, but the wider financial impact on South Africa’s hotel industry remains unquantified.
More detailed booking and revenue data will be needed to establish its scale — and whether stronger event business is compensating for softer regional demand.
