South Africa has outperformed other countries in the fields of investment, tourism, exports, talent, and general reputation.
This was revealed by Brand South Africa’s general manager for research, Lefentse Nakaneng, who stated that the research enabled the country to maximise its strengths and discover solutions for its perceived faults.
According to the analysis, South Africa was placed third in terms of investment and exports.
Bloom Consulting CEO Jose Filipe Torre said while the UK’s reputation outperformed all 17 countries included in the study, South Africa was well ranked. It came in third place in terms of investment and exports. These rankings surpassed the results of the previous 2022 study.
Rugby World Cup victory a boost to the rating
“While the willingness to invest increased 13% over two years, the willingness to travel to South Africa from a touristic perspective only marginally increased by 1%. Even though tourism remained one of the most digitally searched dimensions. With a huge growth of 17% in online searches over the past year,” said Torre.
He also mentioned that South Africa’s Rugby World Cup 2023 victory boosted its ratings. The victory resulted in a significant increase in the country’s overall reputation and significance.
“The domain southafrica.net ranked as the seventh top contributor in tourism. This when compared to the other countries in the study.”
Crime remains a concern
Despite the high ranks, safety and crime remain a key source of concern, as indicated in the previous year’s research. Torre said there is room for improvement to ensure that even the areas where the country is lacking are strengthened.
“Overall, the study revealed that South Africa has a moderately positive perception in all the brand dimensions studied. This is because when it came to digital searches on safety and crime, Chile, Brazil and Thailand all faired significantly. They rated worse than South Africa. Good work on growing South Africa’s general reputation,” said Torre.
