African countries in general have registered improved socio-economic and economic growth and development for the past 20 years since the 1990s. Of particular interest is southern Africa which has recorded a period of unprecedented political stability and economic growth in the wake of South Africa’s change to a democratic dispensation in 1994. Economic growth has brought with it an increase in the number of families counted in the middle class and therefore as prospective domestic and outbound tourists. This study examined the extent to which both the private and the public sectors in southern Africa, created with a focus on overseas or international tourists, have recognized this regional tourist market. The study used the core-periphery relationship as the conceptual framework to determine the difference ways in which core and periphery dynamics influenced the recognition of the regional tourist as a tourism market. The research found that the regional market has been recognized to different extents by the public and the private sector in the four case study countries. The core country, South Africa, has shown the most comprehensive recognition by dedicating resources to research into and planning around how to capture or retain market share. The peripheral countries have dedicated few if any resources to understanding the regional market; their systems and investors continue to focus primarily on the international market, and because the international and regional markets have different needs, find it difficult to switch their focus to this emerging market. The study also found that having a core country as an immediate neighbor pulls all those with the willingness and ability to travel towards itself, to the detriment of domestic tourism development in the short-term. The study suggests that to access the existing regional market, the three case study countries of the periphery would be well served to adapt to their circumstances the data-driven approach of South Africa.