Global transportation service Hoppa, has surveyed 100 cities to reveal the cheapest and most expensive travel destinations in the world for 2020 from this selection.
Criteria included the cost of a hotel room for the night, the average price of both restaurant meals and fast food, the costs of beverages such as coffee, beer, wine, and cocktails, as well as the price of taxi fares. Flight prices were excluded.
Unsurprisingly, New York has been ranked as the world’s most expensive city while Manila is the cheapest.
On average, a night in New York would set UK travellers back £375.38 (about R7,000), while a night in Manila would only total £75.53 (R1,408).
Two South African cities also made the list. Johannesburg ranked as the 60th most expensive city in the world, costing international travellers £134.37 (about R2,506) on average overall, while Cape Town took the 81st place at £110.12 (R2,052) in food, accommodation, and transport costs.
Flames restaurant at the Four Seasons Hotel in Johannesburg. Image Four Seasons Hotel
Prices in Johannesburg have increased by 20% since 2019, pushing the city up past Cape Town for the first time since Hoppa started releasing this annual report in 2016.
Notably, the average price of a single night in a double occupancy hotel room in Cape Town has decreased over the past year, which has caused the city to rank as less expensive than Johannesburg for 2020. This may be the result of reduced guest nights. PWC reported that hotels have been experiencing increased cancellations as well as a drop in tourism during the festive season.
South Africa also made the top 10 lists for the cheapest fast food, cocktails, and wine in the world. In particular, the country is well known for the high quality of wine that it produces, with the total annual exports from the South African wine industry exceeding 400 million litres, according to Wines of South Africa.
View the full report here.
