Finance and Economic Opportunities
Question by:
Hon Cayla Murray
Answered by:
Hon Mireille Wenger
Question Number:
8
Question Body:
- (a) What was the average accommodation occupancy rate in the province in (i) November and (ii) December 2022, (b) what is the rate for each month of the remaining tourism season and (c) how does this rate compare with the same period in (i) 2019 and (ii) 2021;
- what was the average spend per (a) international visitor and (b) domestic visitor during their visits to the Western Cape?
Answer Body:
- At present, the Department of Economic Development and Tourism [DEDAT] only has access to hotel occupancy rates as the Department does not subscribe to services that report on occupancy levels for other forms of short-stay accommodation. According to STR [2022], the average hotel occupancy rate for November 2022 was 69.5%. This was slightly lower than the November 2019 average of 76%. The hotel occupancy rate for December 2022 was 72% which was slightly higher than the 68.1% reported for December 2019. Overall, hotel occupancy levels have seen a steady increase since the Covid-19 pandemic started and levels are returning to pre-Covid levels.
FIGURE 1: AVERAGE HOTEL OCCUPANCY [WESTERN CAPE]
Fig. 1. Average hotel occupancy levels for Western Cape hotels [Source: STR].
[Source: STR, 2022]
- At present, DEDAT does not have access to forward booking data so are unable to report on future projected occupancy levels.
- Figure 2 compares the average hotel occupancy levels for summer 2019/2020, 2020/2021, 2021/2022 and 2022/23.
FIG. 2. AVERAGE HOTEL OCCUPANCY LEVELS FOR SUMMER 2020, 2021 & 2022
[Source: STR, 2022]
- Average expenditure figures for the current 2022/2023 [which extends until the end of April] tourism season have not yet been released. In 2021 however, the total average spending for international visitors was R9,545 per trip, while the total average spending for domestic visitors per trip was R3,062. These are national figures and not Western Cape-specific. South African Tourism does however publish a provincial breakdown of domestic spending. It notes that the average domestic spend per trip in the Western Cape was R7,703.79 in 2021.
Date:
Friday, February 3, 2023
