{"id":15976,"date":"2026-01-12T12:30:03","date_gmt":"2026-01-12T15:30:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/africa\/?p=15976"},"modified":"2026-04-19T10:08:03","modified_gmt":"2026-04-19T13:08:03","slug":"fedhasa-attributes-festive-tourism-slump-to-online-gambling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/africa\/fedhasa-attributes-festive-tourism-slump-to-online-gambling","title":{"rendered":"FEDHASA attributes festive tourism slump to online gambling"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The association reported that hotspots like Cape Town performed strongly, but mid-level tourism experienced a delayed peak.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

South Africa.- The Federated Hospitality Association of South Africa (FEDHASA)<\/strong> has blamed the tourism sector’s poor performance during the festive season on the rise of online gambling. According to Brett Tungay<\/strong>, the National Chairperson of FEDHASA, a large portion of consumers’ recreational spending is being diverted to online gambling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tungay also observed that the restaurant industry has been adversely affected by the shift of spending towards gambling. He said: “The effect of online gaming in terms of that discretionary spend, which would have gone to a weekend away, is now being spent on online gambling. It is many billions that are now being spent, and that is all discretionary income.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The association reported that hotspots like Cape Town<\/strong> performed strongly, but mid-level tourism experienced a delayed peak. Tungay interpreted the data as South Africa’s middle class being under financial pressure. He noted that while South Africa attracts many international tourists, domestic tourism still accounts for most festive season spending.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tungay’s comments echo those made by various stakeholders in the retail sector in 2025, including Pick n Pay CEO Sean Summers<\/a>, who described the online gambling crisis as “out of control”, comparing it to the tobacco epidemic of previous decades.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the 2024\/25 financial year,<\/strong> South Africa\u2019s gambling industry achieved a record turnover of R1.15trn<\/strong> (\u20ac78.19bn), with online betting accounting for 60 per cent of<\/strong> the gross gambling revenue.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n\t\t\tSee also:<\/span><\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\tSee also:<\/span> Hyprop raises concerns over online gambling\u2019s impact on retail<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The association reported that hotspots like Cape Town performed strongly, but mid-level tourism experienced a delayed peak.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2395,"featured_media":13918,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"is_press_release":false,"is_interview":false,"is_opinion":false,"focusai_summary":"The Federated Hospitality Association of South Africa (FEDHASA) attributes the tourism sector's poor festive season performance to the diversion of discretionary consumer spending towards online gambling. With online betting comprising 60% of South Africa's record R1.15trn gambling turnover in 2024\/25, this shift is significantly impacting mid-level tourism, the restaurant industry, and retail, signaling financial pressure on the middle class.","focusai_entities":"Federated Hospitality Association of South Africa, FEDHASA, Brett Tungay, Pick n Pay, Sean Summers, Hyprop","focusai_location":"South Africa, Cape Town","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.9), regulator (0.95), compliance_legal (0.7), operator_casino (0.9), affiliate_publisher (0.75), marketing_crm (0.8), payments_fraud_aml (0.7), investor_analyst (0.95), supplier_vendor (0.85), journalist_researcher (0.9)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"Regulatory Response Outlook","query":"Given the significant GGR contribution of online betting and concerns from other economic sectors, what specific regulatory interventions or policy adjustments are anticipated from South African authorities to balance market growth with broader economic stability?"},{"label":"Operator Strategy Impact","query":"How are iGaming operators in South Africa adapting their player acquisition and retention strategies in response to the reported shift in discretionary consumer spending and the potential for increased regulatory scrutiny?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[60016,60011],"tags":[60757,45,60190],"class_list":["post-15976","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business-news","category-south-africa","tag-financial-impact","tag-online-gambling","tag-tourism"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15976","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2395"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15976"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15976\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15982,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15976\/revisions\/15982"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13918"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15976"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15976"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15976"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}