Press release - 5 October 2024 08:00

South Africa regains top spot in new Long Haul Holiday Report as sterling boosts spending power in many destinations

Falling local prices help Cape Town overtake Vietnam and Tokyo to rate as the best value long haul holiday destination for the first time in six years (www.postoffice.co.uk/longhaul)
Far East looks a better bargain than the Caribbean, taking three of the five best value places
Prices are down in over half of destinations – and in eight of the chart’s top 10
Biggest falls were recorded in Barbados (down 18.5%) and Sharm el-Sheikh (down 16.4%)

Cape Town, South Africa has regained its position as the best value destination in Post Office Travel Money’sannual long haul holiday cost of living barometer for the first time in six years. Local price falls, together with a weaker South African rand, have combined to bring costs for British visitors down by 12 per cent since last autumn. This makes Cape Town best value of 32 resorts and cities surveyed¹ for the 15^th annual Long Haul Holiday Report compiled by the UK’s leading foreign exchange provider.

At £55.59, the cost of 10 tourist typical staples – including meals and drinks²- in Cape Town has fallen to the level last seen when South Africa topped the chart in 2018. This comes at a time when British Airways has announced an expansion in flights to Cape Town. Post Office researchers found that the latest barometer basket for Cape Town is over 14 per cent lower than in last year’s best value destination Hoi An, Vietnam, which has fallen to third place after seeing prices rise by over 21 per cent to £64.80.

The Japanese capital, Tokyo, another destination previously rated best value in the annual survey, has moved past Hoi An into second place after seeing its prices fall by 13.5 per cent to £64.07. Another Far Eastern destination, Bali, remains in fourth position with a barometer cost of £67.70, down around eight per cent on last year’s prices. With three of its most popular destinations featuring in the report’s top five, the Far East looks a better bargain for Britons than its competitors in the Caribbean Islands.

Jamaica is the only one of six Caribbean destinations surveyed to make the Post Office top 10. Montego Bay’s barometer total of £93.74 fell 9.4 per cent on 2023 levels, taking the Jamaican resort to 10^thplace. The other new entrant to the top 10 is Santiago, Chile which has benefited from a significant year-on-year fall of 12.5 per cent in the value of the Chilean peso. Local prices have also fallen – one of only six destinations surveyed to do so – and this has resulted in an overall price fall of 14.3 per cent to £88.92.

A surge in sterling’s value against most long haul currencies means that Britons planning winter sun holidays can expect to pay less than a year ago in over half (15 of 29) of the destinations also surveyed a year ago³ – even though local prices have risen. In fact, barometer costs have fallen year-on-year in eight of the 10 best value destinations. The biggest top ten fall of 16.4 per cent was in seventh-placed Sharm el-Sheikh (£76.47), a result boosted by a 71 per cent drop in the value of the Egyptian pound.

For the first time this year Post Office Travel Money is featuring four Australian destinations, with the introduction of Sydney, Cairns and Melbourne to add to Darwin. However, all four are among the 10 most expensive destinations, with Melbourne (27^th, £146.76) rating as better value than the other three Australian cities. At almost £165, Sydney (32^nd) emerges as the most expensive destination in this year’s survey, not least because a three-course meal with a bottle of wine costs nearly £117, which makes the city the priciest place to eat out.

Costa Rica (31^st, £164.30) and New York (30^th, £163.51) are almost as expensive as Sydney. Prices in New York are 57 per higher than UK visitors can expect to pay for meals, drinks and other tourist items in Orlando, Florida, the other US destination surveyed, 14^th in this year’s cost comparison at £109.23. However, despite the pound’s continuing recovery against the US dollar, prices are up in both cities – five per cent in New York and 9.8 per cent in Orlando,

Aside from the price increase of over 21 per cent in Hoi An, Vietnam, visitors can also expect to pay nearly 14 per cent more in Mombasa (£68.53) – due in part to the rising value of the Kenyan shilling. However, the Kenyan resort remains in the best value top five, albeit having fallen from second position last year to fifth place in the 2024 table.

Costs are also down 14.8 per cent to £78.14 in Colombo, Sri Lanka, eighth in the chart, and in Delhi, India, where a marginal one per cent fall to £74.90 means the city retains its sixth place.

The biggest price fall of all has been in 26^th-placed Barbados, where prices in St James are down 18.5 per cent to £141.29. They have also fallen by almost 11 per cent in Cancun as a result of sterling’s recovery against the Mexican peso. At £113.67, this takes Mexico’s top resort four places up the chart to 16^th place.

Laura Plunkett, Head of Travel Money at Post Office, which accounts for one-in-four UK foreign exchange transactions, said: “As ever, our research revealed wide variations in the cost of tourist staples across the 32 destinations we surveyed. This means holidaymakers could save themselves a lot of money and make a big difference to the overall cost of their winter sun trip by doing some basic holiday homework before booking to find out where meals, drinks and other staples are going to cost the least.”

“Holiday homework is just one way that holidaymakers can save money. It’s also important to think carefully about how to get the most out of your spending money. Get holiday spending money in advance of travel because leaving it late and changing money at the airport or topping up overseas means wasting hard-earned cash on poor exchange rates or ATM charges. By changing more than £500, holidaymakers can get a better exchange rate at Post Office and on our website. You can also consider putting cash on a Post Office Travel Money Card which is available in up to 22 currencies and avoids paying the transaction charges incurred by debit cards and most credit cards in shops and restaurants abroad.”

Ends

The full results of the 2024 Post Office Travel Money Long Haul Holiday Report can be viewed online at www.postoffice.co.uk/longhaul and a breakdown of costs is given in the attached barometer tables.

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