“Be aware, but not afraid.” This is the key advice JD van Zyl, founder of tour operator The Travel Cafe, would tell any tourist who is nervous about visiting South Africa.
Based in Cape Town, JD, who founded The Travel Cafe along with his husband, François Lebrun, runs a boutique travel company specialising in curated small-group journeys across South Africa and Southern Africa.
Wine aficionados take to the winelands for cellar tours and tipple tastings in Stellenbosch and Franschhoek. Nature lovers will seek out the penguin colony on Boulders Beach or tackle the sandstone hiking trails on Table Mountain. And shopping fanatics will spend time browsing the outlets at Cape Town’s V&A Waterfront.
This is only a small snippet of the magnetic forces that pull in visitors and allow tourism in South Africa to thrive. In fact, the country’s international tourism sector achieved full recovery in 2025 from its pandemic drop, with total arrivals reaching 10.5 million, which is more than 17 per cent up on the previous and almost three per cent higher than 2019.
However, this same country, so popular with overseas tourists, also has one of the highest crime rates in the world.
South Africa has made headlines recently after tourists have gone missing or were found dead while on trips.
Last month, news broke that the bodies of South African couple, Ernst and Dina Marais, were discovered floating in crocodile-infested waters with multiple stab wounds near Crooks Corner in Kruger National Park.
The murders echoed another incident, just months prior, which left a family from Devon devastated. At the end of last year, 71-year-old British tourist Lorna McSorely vanished on a walk from the lodge where she was staying in KwaZulu-Natal province during a Tui package holiday. Locals and officials believe it’s possible she could have been killed and her body parts harvested to be used for “muti” – witchcraft.
These incidents have been described as isolated or rare events, yet general crime rate statistics in South Africa are enough to concern tourists considering a trip to the country.
Don’t base judgement entirely on statistics
South Africa counts their crime statistics in terms of financial years. In the last annual report from April 2024 to March 2025, there were 24,692 murders. Overall, there were 655,416 crimes against the person, which includes murder, assault, robberies and sexual offences. While numbers may slightly rise and drop slightly, with this annual report showing another decline in crime, there has been no significant decline in these rates compared to recent years.
On paper these statistics are shocking, but Mr van Zyl said the high numbers do not mirror what tourists will encounter.
“The national crime statistics are not a reflection of what tourists experience when they are in the country. The vast majority of travellers have no incidents whatsoever, and they leave remembering the beautiful experiences that they had here,” he explained.
“We’ve [The Travel Cafe] been going for nine years now, and we have not had one single incident with guests having any issues [with safety], and we have had thousands of guests travel with us.”
It is not just local tour companies that make this claim. David Vorster, Africa’s regional security manager at International SOS, which offers travel risk management for business and personal trips, agrees.
He said that travel in South Africa “can be conducted safely as long as tourists are well-informed and appropriately supported throughout their travel”.
“The vast majority of the almost nine million travellers who visit South Africa each year do so without incident,” Mr Vorster explained. “While South African cities experience higher levels of crime than most other international destinations, those incidents impacting tourists usually involve opportunistic crimes that are enabled through a lack of awareness of the threat or inadequate preparation and support.”
If there is a visitor who is nervous, Mr van Zyl’s advice is “be aware, not afraid”. He describes the rest of his South African safety advice as “surprisingly ordinary,” much like you would hear in any other country.
“Be aware of surroundings. Avoid walking alone at night in unfamiliar urban areas. Use reputable transport providers. Ask locals or accommodation staff for area-specific advice.
“And listen to your instinct – if something doesn’t feel right, trust your gut. These are largely the same precautions I would follow in Rio de Janeiro, New York, Barcelona and London.”
‘More security than a military installation’
It’s a paradoxical land. Few countries in the world have such a mainstream tourist industry while also being home to such high levels of crime. Much of this can be attributed to deep-rooted systemic issues that allow for extreme wealth inequality that impacts much of South Africa’s population due to apartheid’s legacy. It reminds us that travel is a privilege, and if you can afford to visit beautiful places such as South Africa, you need to be prepared to also be confronted with sides of the destination that have been impacted by complex issues.
Nationally, serious crime is down, but still at an “unacceptably” high level, minister of police, Firoz Cachalia said in May. He added that organised crime is a key factor, but much crime also relates to societal issues such as violence inside the home and alcohol abuse.
“We have astronomical crime levels, but so much of it is concentrated in areas that tourists haven’t even heard of, let alone will go to,” explained Cape Town-based tour guide Dominic Chadbon.
Known as The Fynbos Guy, Mr Chadbon makes a living as a licensed tour operator, taking customers on hiking, nature and birdwatching tours around Cape Town, Cape Point, Table Mountain and beyond. Over his years of guiding, he has become an expert on where and where not to take his customers, often staying with them door-to-door.
“There’s no other country on the Gini coefficient index [a measure of income inequality] with greater wealth inequality. That’s no big surprise, but when you’re here, you realise what that actually means – and that is you can have very rich and safe places juxtaposed against very dangerous, crime-ridden and murderous places.”
Tourists are advised to travel with valuables out of sight, remain alert in slow or stationary traffic, not to venture out at night, and opt for driving to nearby places instead of walking. Areas such as the Cape Flats or downtown Johannesburg are places well known to avoid.
Mr Chadbon explained that tourists are not necessarily targeted specifically by criminals, but instead they fixate on anyone who looks wealthy. However, there are some areas frequented by tourists that are “insanely safe”.
Places like The V&A Waterfront in Cape Town, Boulder’s Beach penguin colony, the winelands, all of which have a heavy tourist footprint, have “more security there than you, then you’ll see around a military installation”, Mr Chadbon added.
The tour guide also explained that horrific incidents hitting headlines tend to wrongly be seen as representative of the whole country, or even the entire continent. “The incident in Kruger Park, as awful as it was, was the first incident of its kind,” he said. “The Kruger Park is the size of Wales, so it’s like having a gruesome murder in Bangor, and then cancelling your camping trip to Cwmaman.”
Rely on local advice
South Africa’s tourist board says that it draws visitors thanks to its natural assets and locals’ hospitable nature towards tourists. It’s easy to see the attraction of the dramatic Table Mountain, the chance to encounter rare wildlife, and the opportunity to visit exceptional wine regions and sun-soaked beaches.
Safety concerns was the most frequently cited reason in the tourist board’s annual tourist satisfaction survey on why visitors may not be satisfied with their trips to the country.
“South Africa has a very violent reputation, but very gentle, nice people,” Mr Chadbon said. “It’s part of the crazy juxtaposition of things here.”
So how do tourists tackle this barrier? Mr Chadbon said simply: “This is a destination where travellers need to hand over to locals.
“So many people tell me ‘Oh, we normally do this ourselves. We did it all ourselves in Australia, we did it all ourselves in Europe’. But in Africa, get a travel company involved and get local advice, because it’s local knowledge that really is the difference.”
He added: “I know how to get there. I know the guys that run the place, and I don’t make a wrong turn.”
While straying off the beaten track in, for example, Spain, can lead you to a hidden gem, Mr Chadbon explained that wrong turns in South Africa can be bad turns, so contacting local guides to help you with bookings, transfers and getting from A to B is essential.
The UK’s Foreign Office (FCDO) says that no travel anywhere in the world can be guaranteed as safe. Its list of safety and security advice for South Africa can feel endless, including airport crime, road attacks, taxi app crime, scams, hiker attacks and unwanted attention for solo and female travellers. Yet despite this, it does not have any notices in place advising against travel.
While travel to the country may not be as carefree as a trip within Europe, Mr van Zyl said South Africa will reward travellers who approach it with “curiosity, awareness and an open mind”.
“It’s a complex country, but it’s also one of the most beautiful, diverse and enriching destinations on Earth,” he added. “The vast majority of visitors leave not talking about crime, but talking about the people they met, the wildlife they encountered and the experiences they’ll remember for the rest of their lives.”
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