The information below was extracted from available data as at 18 October 2012, writes Martin Jansen van Vuuren.
Arrivals:
The latest available data from Statistics South Africa is for January and June 2012:
| Current period | Change over same period last year | |
| UK | 215 524 | 5% |
| Germany | 118 776 | 12.2% |
| USA | 155 522 | 16.3% |
| India | 53 291 | 21.2% |
| China | 60 272 | 68.4% |
| Overseas Arrivals | 1 163 477 | 17.1% |
| African Arrivals | 3 239 944 | 8.3% |
| Total Foreign Arrivals | 4 416 373 | 10.5% |
NB: African Arrivals plus Overseas Arrivals do not add to Total Foreign Arrivals due to the exclusion of unspecified arrivals, which could not be allocated to either African or Overseas.
Hotel Stats:
The latest available data from STR Global is for January to August of 2012:
| Current period | Average room occupancy (ARO) | Average room rate (ARR) | Revenue per Available room (RevPAR) |
| All Hotels in SA | 57.6% | R 873.09 | R 502.94 |
| All 5-star hotels in SA | 55.8% | R 1 550.11 | R 864.39 |
| All 4-star hotels in SA | 57.5% | R 840.73 | R 483.45 |
| All 3-star hotels in SA | 57.7% | R 704.74 | R 406.55 |
| Change over same period last year | |||
| All Hotels in SA | 7.2% | 3.5% | 11.0% |
| All 5-star hotels in SA | 11.5% | 1.3% | 12.9% |
| All 4-star hotels in SA | 8.0% | 3.4% | 11.6% |
| All 3-star hotels in SA | 5.3% | 4.2% | 9.8% |
ACSA data:
The latest available data from ACSA is for January to September 2012:
| Change of same period last year | Passengers arriving on International Flights |
Passengers arriving on Regional Flights |
Passengers arriving on Domestic Flights |
| OR Tambo International | 1.4% | -0.6% | -1.8% |
| Cape Town International | 7.6% | 19.7% | 1.9% |
| King Shaka International | 15.4% | N/A | -4.8% |
WHAT THIS MEANS FOR MY BUSINESS:
The growth in revenue per available room for hotels is encouraging. It points to an improvement in not only the occupancy of the hotels but also the room rates that are being achieved.
This positive news is being countered by the decline in passengers arriving on domestic flights at OR Tambo and Cape Town International Airports between January and September 2012, compared with the same period in 2011.
Complaints from guesthouses, bed & breakfast and self-catering establishments that they are not experiencing the increase in tourism arrivals might point to a situation where business tourists are travelling (who mainly stay in hotels) while the holiday tourists are not travelling (who mainly stay in other types of accommodation).
For more information contact Martin at Grant Thornton on +27 (0)21 417 8838 or visit: http://www.gt.co.za
