VFR TRAVEL AND COVID-19 IMPACTS: THE SOUTH AFRICAN EXPERIENCE

COVID-19 had major negative consequences globally for travel for visits to friends and relatives (VFR), which is an under-researched segment of tourism. This paper responds to the need for extended research on VFR travel by examining the impacts of COVID-19 on the VFR sector and its spatial imprint in South Africa. VFR travel sector was second only to business travel in terms of the negative impacts of COVID-19 restrictions imposed in South Africa. An uneven geography is observed of the impact of COVID-19 on VFR travel mobilities. Using data on VFR trips and bednights the analysis discloses the greatest absolute declines in VFR travel occurred in South Africa’s major metropolitan areas. By contrast, in terms of the relative decline and local impacts for destinations of the COVID-19 hollowing out of VFR travel a different pattern emerges. The worst affected spaces were remote, mainly rural localities which are in South Africa’s poorest and most economically distressed areas.