South Africa’s biggest events are becoming tourism products in their own right. In 2027, the Sanlam Cape Town Marathon joins the Abbott World Marathon Majors, putting Cape Town on the same circuit as Boston, London, Tokyo and New York. Durban already sees tens of thousands of visitors around the Durban July horse race and Comrades Marathon.
For tourism and travel businesses, the value extends far beyond the event ticket. Visitors flying in for a race or concert need accommodation and local transport, often for both themselves and travelling companions.
Technology is making that journey easier to organise from abroad. International ticketing platforms put a South African event in front of buyers continents away, while digital visa systems remove part of the friction that previously discouraged travellers.
Kosovo has already seen what happens when a live event starts pulling significant numbers of foreign visitors into a city. Sunny Hill Festival was founded in 2018 by global pop star Dua Lipa and her father and manager, Dukagjin Lipa, to bring international artists and audiences to the small Balkan state of 1.6-million people.
During the 2025 Sunny Hill Festival in Prishtina, hotels in the capital were effectively full. More than 100,000 people attended from nearly 60 countries, and the Kosovo Chamber of Hotels and Tourism estimated about €22-million in direct economic impact.
The festival returned at the end of July 2026 with Katy Perry headlining its opening night, followed by Lewis Capaldi and Martin Garrix over the next two evenings. The three-day event sold out, with organisers again catering for more than 100,000 people.
At its previous venue, Gërmia Park, crowds topped 15,000 a night and the venue could not take more. Sunny Hill moved to a permanent site at Bërnica in 2024 and its first edition there drew up to 40,000 people a day. In 2025 the organisers launched a travel service that bundled accommodation, festival tickets and transport. Now, €7-million is being invested in transforming the Bërnica festival area into a public park.
South Africa is not short of events.
The 2026 Sanlam Cape Town Marathon drew 27,000 marathon entrants, including 8,500 international runners from 145 countries. After the race, Cape Town was confirmed as the eighth race of the Abbott World Marathon Majors, and the first in Africa.
The international field was already large before. The United States supplied 1,571 entries for the 2026 race, Britain 712 and Germany 358. Organisers estimated that foreign participants would contribute about R800-million in direct economic impact to the Western Cape.
The marathon is part of a much larger events business in Cape Town. During the 2025/26 financial year, the City approved 983 events that attracted about 4.1-million spectators and participants, generating more than R5-billion in economic impact.
On 4 July, the Durban July attracted about 45,000 visitors. eThekwini Municipality put direct visitor spending at about R254-million and preliminary total local economic impact at around R880-million.
Many of the transactions now happen before the traveller leaves home. Sunny Hill’s 2026 international ticketing partner, Fever, an event-discovery and ticketing service, operates across more than 40 countries. Festival buyers outside Kosovo were directed to it for tickets, and Sunny Hill’s own travel service could package the ticket with accommodation and transport.
As the technology becomes more integrated, friction fades. A visitor can discover an event online, buy admission from abroad, reserve accommodation and organise local transport on the same device. Each completed step makes what retailers call the “abandoned shopping cart” less likely.
South Africa is shortening the visa process for some of the markets that still require one. The Electronic Travel Authorisation system is live for tourists from China, India, Indonesia and Mexico. Applicants can complete the process online with passport and biometric checks, and government says qualifying applicants can receive a visa outcome within 24 hours. At last week’s launch of the system, Minister of Home Affairs Leon Schreiber said it had processed more than 216,000 applications.
South Africa welcomed a record 10.5-million international tourists in 2025, up 17.7% from 2024, finally overtaking the pre-Covid high of 10.2-million set in 2019.
As Cape Town prepares for the World Marathon Major in May 2027, tourism businesses have a gilt-edged opportunity to sell the days around the race.
* Arthur Goldstuck is CEO of World Wide Worx, editor-in-chief of Gadget.co.za, and author of “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to AI – The African Edge”.