Travel Agents Cite NDC As Leading Headache Amid Ongoing Change In South Africa’s Travel Market

As the travel industry moves in 2026, Travel News polls from the past two years point to a South African outbound travel sector in a state of significant transformation. While demand remains resilient, agents continue to face structural and commercial pressures that have pushed them to reconsider how they sell and service travel. 

Challenges persist

When comparing the biggest obstacles for travel agents in 2024 and 2025, Travel News poll results reveal that NDC, high airfares, flight disruptions and clients shopping around remain the most significant challenges for travel agents.

NDC continues to top the list, cited by almost 30% of respondents in 2024 and rising to 34% in 2025 as their number-one challenge. The increase highlights the ongoing struggle between airlines and travel agents to consolidate and standardise distribution channels, in order for agents to be able to offer their clients the best possible fares and servicing capabilities.

High airfares, while still a major concern, declined from 28% in 2024 to just under 18% in 2025. At the same time, flight disruptions became more pronounced, increasing from 9,5% in 2024 to 12% in 2025.

Another pressure point that intensified was clients shopping around, as more respondents found it to be their biggest challenge, with an increase from 10% of votes in 2024 to 13% in 2025. Industry leaders and associations continue to urge agents to consider implementing appropriate service fee models and educate clients on the value of their services.

While concerns about human resources and skills shortages dropped significantly from 5,4% to 1,8%, there was a slight increase in the perceived lack of product training and knowledge. Time constraints and lack of resources are among the challenges preventing businesses from offering training programmes that focus on technical and practical skills.

‘Lack of leisure travel demand’ was cited as a challenge by 7,1% of agents in 2025, a notable increase from 5,2% in 2024. This suggests that while leisure demand is high, agents are still struggling with the consistency or profitability of this segment post-pandemic.

Conversely, the recovery of business travel remains a low-level concern, rising only slightly from 2,8% to 3,2%. This indicates that business travel has reached a stable, post-pandemic new normal.

Lastly, AI adoption remained a very minor concern among travel agents, with a marginal increase from 1% to 1,4% in 2025. While agents have dismissed rumours of AI replacing them in the travel trade, experts warn that adoption of AI as a tool to assist agents will be essential for them to remain relevant.

Destination dynamics

While some destination favourites remain unshakeable, South Africans are beginning to broaden their travel horizons. Mauritius, Southern Africa, Europe and the UK remained at the top of agents’ most sold destinations in 2024 and 2025. 

Mauritius, Southern Africa and domestic destinations stayed in the top half of most popular destinations, making a strong case for continued growth in domestic and regional travel.

Internationally, the UK saw a notable climb from eighth most sold destination in 2024 (3,9%) to fourth in 2025 (6,5%). Additionally, the US rose from the 15^th most sold destination in 2024 (0,9%) to eighth in 2025 (3,7%).

Dubai secured its place in the top-five destinations during both 2024 and 2025, proving its status as a destination for both leisure and stopover traffic.