Want to be sure of a smile this summer? Best you head for the Garden Route, and the friendliest town in South Africa.
That’s according to kulula.com, whose Friendliest Destinations survey says that the warmest holiday welcome in South Africa is to be found in Plettenberg Bay. KwaZulu-Natal’s Ballito, the Drakensberg, Knysna and Camps Bay fill out the top five spots.
Via its kulula holidays site, kulula.com surveyed over 1500 people from across the country. Fans were asked to vote for their favourite friendliest holiday destination from a list of 40 popular and less well-known destinations across South Africa, or submit their own destination.
The higher the destination’s score, the higher the happy factor; the lower scores suggested that locals could do with flexing their facial muscles more. 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 kulula.com online survey, kulula sent friendliest destination researchers to put fans’ votes to the test by conducting a unique smile-o-metre survey within each of the top five friendliest holiday spots.
The researchers used the highly scientific ‘Smile/Scowl’ Ratio Method© to gather results by walking along the busy main road of each destination and noting spontaneous and returned smiles of passersby. Five points were awarded to the destination when locals spontaneously smiled; two points were awarded when our researcher smiled and received return stunners.
“No-one wants to holiday with a bunch of sad sacks, so we’re helping South Africans pick the happiest destinations to visit this summer. As a business we’ve learned that friendly staff are critical to keep people coming back – it’s exactly the same for summer holiday destinations,” says kulula.com Marketing Manager, Nadine Damen.
“Tourism Plettenberg Bay is thrilled that it was voted the friendliest holiday spot in the kulula.com friendliest destinations survey. We look forward to welcoming holiday-makers with a big smile,” comments Dianna Martin of Tourism Plettenberg Bay.
CLICK HERE to book accommodation in Plett online
Do you agree, or have you found a 'smilier' spot? Post a comment below...
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