South Africa Still Draws in the Crowds
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By Yolandi Groenewald Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) 17 March, 2004
South Africa is still outperforming other tourism markets in the world, despite the effects of a strong rand and the shortage of in-bound flights to Cape Town. So said South African Tourism at a recent media briefing in Johannesburg
Moeketsi Mosola, South African Tourism's chief operating officer, said that South Africa is still a leader in the field of global tourism.
Recent media reports suggested that South Africa was losing its edge as a cost-effective tourist destination because of the strengthening of the rand. But, said Mosola, if the struggling state of world tourism is taken into consideration, South Africa is doing extremely well.
"Our data showed that our tourism market continued to grow. If you compare the prices of a whole package to South Africa, we are extremely competitive."
The World Travel and Tourism Council's figures showed that only Kenya and China were more competitively priced than South Africa. However, South Africa was the most accessible destination in terms of requirements such as visas.
Cape Town still had a price advantage over most rival destinations, said Rob O'Hanlon, partner in the Travel, Tourism and Leisure Practice of Deloitte, which audits the hospitality industry. "If you compare Cape Town with a rival city like Sydney in Australia, Cape Town is still 29% cheaper - while it offers a similar experience to tourists."
Helder Pereira, Southern Sun's MD, said the South African hotel sector's occupancy of 68% in 2003 outperformed all the key global regions, including the United States and Europe.
He said negative comments came from critics who were comparing 2002 and 2003. "In 2002 South Africa's tourism industry had an extraordinary year, with the Earth Summit, the after-effects of September 11, as well as tourists taking advantage of the weak rand."
Mosola said South African Tourism could not rest on its laurels but will work to solve the problem of insufficient flights to Cape Town.
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