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South Africans are very good at being tourists.
Just not necessarily in South Africa.
Give us a passport and suddenly we’re travel experts. We’ll research restaurants for six months, save 47 places on Google Maps, buy an outfit specifically for the trip and announce that we’re “living our best life”.
But suggest a weekend somewhere two hours from home and suddenly it’s: “Eish, that’s far.”
Tourism Minister Patricia de Lille thinks we might need to change that.
At the launch of Tourism Month in Durban, she reminded South Africans of a rather simple idea: “Tourism begins at home.”
And honestly, she might be onto something.
Because if you live in Durban or anywhere else in KwaZulu-Natal, there’s a decent chance you’ve spent more time telling visitors what they should see than actually seeing some of it yourself.
The Durban problem
Durban has a particularly funny version of this problem.
We know the beachfront. We know the curry spots. We know where to go for a sundowner. We have strong opinions about which side of town has the best food.
But ask a Durbanite when they last stayed in a hotel in their own city and you may be met with a long silence.
And when was the last time you actually planned a weekend here?
Not because family was visiting. Not because someone had a birthday. Not because you had tickets to a concert.
Just because you wanted to be a tourist.
Exactly.
KZN is practically showing off
The thing is, we have very little excuse.
KZN is one of those places where you can change the scenery without needing to board a plane.
You can wake up near the ocean and be in the mountains a few hours later. You can go from city restaurants to Midlands country escapes, from hiking trails to game reserves, from beach days to battlefields, from big sporting events to small-town food adventures.
And somehow, many of us are still spending Saturday doing exactly what we did last Saturday.
There is something slightly ridiculous about that.
Imagine being a tourist in your own province.
You’d probably have an itinerary. You’d take pictures. You’d ask questions. You’d stop somewhere because the view looked nice. You’d actually read the plaque at the heritage site.
You might even try something without first asking whether anyone you know has been there.
The tourist version of you is more adventurous
This is the strange thing about travelling.
We become more curious. We trust recommendations from strangers. We walk into restaurants because they look interesting. We take the scenic route. We try the local speciality. We strike up conversations.
We look at our surroundings as if we’re seeing them for the first time.
Then we come home and return to our usual routines.
Perhaps that’s why De Lille’s call for more domestic tourism is more interesting than simply telling South Africans to spend money locally.
It’s an invitation to look again.
She also pointed to the way technology is changing how we travel, saying: “Many journeys begin on a screen.”
Which is very true.
You can discover a tiny restaurant in another country while sitting on your couch. You can watch someone hike a trail you’ve never heard of. You can see a hotel on Instagram and immediately start planning a trip.
But the same thing can happen much closer to home.
What if you treated this weekend like a holiday?
Here’s our challenge.
Don’t wait for December. Don’t wait for an overseas trip. Don’t wait for someone from Johannesburg to visit so you can finally show them around.
Pick somewhere in Durban or KZN you’ve never experienced properly.
Book the thing. Eat the food. Take the drive. Go to the event. Try the activity. Stay overnight if you can.
And, for the love of all things Durban, don’t spend the entire weekend complaining about the traffic.
You are now a tourist.
Tourists have better attitudes.
Mostly.
If you’re looking for somewhere to start, check out our latest Out and About in Durban: Things to Do This Weekend for music, comedy, markets, hikes and more happening across Durban and KZN.
This is where technology gets interesting
De Lille’s speech wasn’t simply about getting South Africans to travel more.
She spoke about how digital technology, AI and online platforms are changing the way people discover destinations.
That matters because you don’t necessarily need a massive new attraction to make somewhere feel new.
Sometimes you need a better story.
A restaurant needs to be discovered. A trail needs to be seen. A neighbourhood needs someone to say, “You have to go here.”
A local experience needs to reach somebody who didn’t know it existed.
And suddenly, a place that has been there for years becomes somebody’s next destination.
That’s where platforms like Time Out come in.
A city guide exists to make you curious about where you live. To tell you what’s happening. Where to eat. Where to go. What you’ve somehow managed to miss despite living here.
Because discovering a city shouldn’t be reserved for people visiting from somewhere else.
So, are you actually a tourist?
Maybe that’s the real challenge.
If someone visiting Durban asked you to plan their perfect weekend, could you?
If someone visiting KZN asked where they should eat, hike, stay, dance, swim, explore or simply disappear for 48 hours, would you have an answer?
And if you don’t, perhaps it’s time to do some research.
On yourself.
Because tourism doesn’t always require a passport.
Sometimes it just requires a little curiosity about the place you’ve been taking for granted.
And perhaps that’s the best part of De Lille’s “tourism begins at home” message.
You don’t necessarily need to go somewhere new.
You might just need to experience somewhere familiar like you’ve never been there before.
Now, who’s up for a weekend in their own backyard?
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