The warmest welcome in South Africa is to be found in Plett, according to a kulula.com survey.
It identified Plettenberg Bay as South Africa’s friendliest holiday spot, followed closely by Ballito, the Drakensberg, Knysna and Camps Bay.
The budget airline surveyed more than 1 500 people from across the country, who were asked to vote for their friendliest destination.
Lower scores suggested that locals could do with flexing their facial muscles more. According to the survey, tourists probably shouldn’t expect the locals to be too chummy in Beaufort West, Tulbagh and the Bluff, which ranked the grouchiest on the online survey, while the Western Cape came out tops as the friendliest province.
Based on the top scores of the survey, kulula.com’s researchers hit the road to conduct a smile-o-metre survey within each of the top five friendliest holiday spots.
They walked along the busy main road of each destination and noted spontaneous and returned smiles of passers-by. Five points were awarded when locals smiled spontaneously, while two points were awarded when the researcher’s smile was returned.
“Tourism Plettenberg Bay is thrilled it was voted the friendliest holiday spot in the kulula.com friendliest destinations survey,” says Dianna Martin of Tourism Plettenberg Bay.
“No one wants to holiday with a bunch of sad sacks,” says kulula.com marketing manager Nadine Damen. “As a business, we’ve learned that friendly staff are critical to keep people coming back – it’s exactly the same for holiday destinations.” - The Star