What does Rednote think of South Africa?

While Johannesburg and Kruger leads by a significant margin on Rednote, Cape Town and Durban offer hotspots of potential.

Rednote has exploded onto the international stage lately, fuelled in part by a looming TikTok ban, but also as a pure curiosity magnet. Rednote is known, often resentfully by the average Chinese netizen, as "China's elitist app".

Rednote is 70% constituted by high-spending, influential urbanites in cities like Beijing and Shanghai. And like it or not, they set the tone for the rest of the country, spending on average $567 on in-app purchases every month.

When it comes to long-haul trips like South Africa, Rednote is among the demographics most likely to have the time and budget to make the trip. But what they see about South Africa on Rednote leaves much room for improvement.

Let's look at the hashtag numbers in the tourism category for South Africa as a whole.

Hashtag English translation	Total views
South African travel	100,960,813
South African wildlife	2,669,259
South Africa Tourist Visa	571,874
South Africa Business Visa	415,022
South Africa Travel Guide	344,347
Flights between SA and China	342,181
South African penguins	189,936
South African Airways	175,515
South African Safari	167,065
Johannesburg, South Africa	163,406
South African cordylus lizard	115,462
Garden Route, South Africa	91,294
South Africa Exhibition	75,450
Wild luxury camp in South Africa	66,101
Penguin Beach, South Africa	56,220
South Africa Tourist E-Visa	49,811
South Africa by car	34,171
Guided tours of South Africa	34,014
South Africa Hotels	28,600
Table Mountain, South Africa	20,673
Diverse South Africa is here for you	20,398
South Africa Travel Recommendations	19,584
FIT in South Africa	17,936
First experience of life in South Africa	11,682
South Africa Double Clearance Tax	10,606
South African hiking	10,325
Spring in South Africa	10,258
Chengdu drive to South Africa	10,044
Translation for exhibitions in South Africa	9,280
Entry to South Africa	9,082
South Africa Logistics Freight Forwarding	8,111
South Africa exhibition set-up	7,326
South Africa travel inspiration	6,656
Must-brings when traveling to South Africa	6,339
Johannesburg International Energy Exhibition, South Africa	5,482
South African bell peppers	5,002
South Africa PV Exhibition	4,929
South African hunting	4,777
Solar Energy Exhibition	4,634
Transit in South Africa	4,480
South African citrus	3,936
South African Energy Show	3,864
South Africa International Auto Parts Show	3,496
How to travel in Cape Town, South Africa	3,280
South Africa Travel Advice	2,721
South Africa is safe to travel	2,298
Tourism in Southeast Africa	1,697
South Africa Exhibition Design	1,616
Luxury hotel in South Africa	1,548
South Africa booth construction	1,473
PV South Africa 2024	1,465
Five countries in Southeast Africa	1,404
Port Elizabeth, South Africa	1,376
South African Wildlife Show	1,335
South Africa with families	1,275
Study in South Africa	1,199
Garden Route Guide to South Africa	1,129
Luxury travel in South Africa	1,106
South African camp	1,093
Afrikaburn	1,049
Bird watching in South Africa	948
South Africa Building Materials Exhibition	811
South Africa eVisa processing	766
South African Outdoor Hunting Show	693
South Africa International Energy Storage Exhibition	447
South African Exhibition Company	444
South Africa booth production and construction	364
Customized tour of South Africa	313
South African petrified wood	299
South African Ballito	290
South Africa is visa-free	132
National Day Crowd Tour South Africa for 8 days	104

Besides wildlife and safaris leading the SA brand on Rednote, the flight and visa hashtags ranking as high as they do shows one thing: Rednote users are using the app as a search engine to get their questions answered about how they actually get to SA, as they might do with any destination.

This is no surprise given the visa challenges of the past several years. Group tour views exceed FIT travel views, and the prevalence of topics around exhibitions and trade show set-up bode well for the country's MICE efforts.

A few surprise mentions include hunting in South Africa and Afrikaburn, both not typically associated with the China market's preferences. Still, it goes to show how Rednote is a high-spend, niche platform used not only by Beijingers and Shanghainese, but also overseas Chinese from Singapore to Vancouver.

What about Joburg specifically?

English translation	Total views
Johannesburg Travel	6,592,230
Flights between China and Johannesburg	141,135
Where to go in Joburg on the weekend	68,900
Johannesburg return to China	52,787
Johannesburg Tours	47,421
Johannesburg transfer	14,109
Johannesburg cuisine	7,677
Johannesburg International Energy Exhibition, South Africa	5,482
Johannesburg exhibition translation	2,503
Johannesburg Exhibition	1,074
Johannesburg guide	850
Recommended hotels in Johannesburg	519
Joburg must-haves	274
Solar PV Exhibition in Johannesburg, South Africa	88

Johannesburg holds nearly double the views that Cape Town holds on Rednote. Home to a large Chinese community and attracting a vast proportion of MICE travel, this is not surprising, though this likely masks a split between more leisure focused travel in Cape Town, and business travel in Johannesburg.

Next, Cape Town:

English translation	Total views
Cape Town Travel	3,546,307
How to travel in Cape Town	852,974
Cape Town Tours	341,046
Table Mountain, Cape Town	82,338
Cape Town cuisine	75,383
Self-drive in Cape Town	34,050
Cape Town Hotels	18,108
Cape Town Day Tour	5,067
Translation for Cape Town exhibitions	4,042
Luxury hotel in Cape Town	3,476
Cape Town Exhibition	2,826
Cape Town translation	1,399
Cape Town Ground Pick-up	1,049
Simon's Town, Cape Town	1,007
A must-see in Cape Town	251
Cape Town return airfare	110

Interesting but not surprising is that Capetonian cuisine ranks just under Table Mountain, as the Mother City's gastronomic diversity and Malay culinary influences likely agree more with China's food-obsessed travelers. It also features ten times more prominently than Johannesburg cuisine.

Lastly, we turn to Durban:

English translation	Total views
World Table Tennis Championships in Durban 2023	80,966,883
Durban	5,465,990
Port of Durban	34,990

Durban is a true case study into the power of sports tournaments, with views for the World Table Tennis Championships 2023 rivaling even the total views for South African travel as a whole. No doubt, the "Durban" tag was bolstered by the tournament in Rednote's list of travel-related hashtags. Besides Ballito, Durban does not seem to hold much travel branding power on Rednote, though a deeper dive into platform analytics may reveal content not shown in this broad-strokes analysis.

For inquiries about the full report, contact marketing@cconsulting.com.cn