Bay beats national travel trend, despite impact of rising costs

AN increase in food and fuel prices coupled with slow economic growth has heavily impacted the tourism industry in South Africa.

This is according to Statistics South Africa’s domestic tourism survey released yesterday.

But Nelson Mandela Bay Tourism (NMBT) chief executive Mandlakazi Skefile said that while on a national level certain declines had been noted, domestic travel numbers in the Bay have been sustained and even grown.

She said it was a concern that travel numbers had declined in the South African tourism sector.

Skefile said NMBT would work with national departments to investigate where improvements could be implemented, as tourism played a vital role in contributing to the GDP.

A total of 3 339 707 bed nights were sold in the Bay last year, at an average occupancy of 56.43%, up 2.26% from 2015.

The direct spend by visitors to the Bay was R6.5-billion, sustaining around 49 185 jobs within the metro.

Skefile said foreign tourist arrivals to South Africa grew by 12.8% from the previous year and that this increase was also felt in the Bay.

From NMBT’s occupancy surveys it was found that 17.78% of bed nights sold were foreign, compared with 13.9% the previous year.

Tourism expert Peter Myles said the findings were a reflection of slow economic growth, less disposable income and price increases.

“It is a concern, especially because the creation of more jobs is directly related to growth in a specific industry,” he said.

Myles said with rising food and fuel costs, consumers had less disposable income and that the first thing they cut was travel and holidays.

“People start economising and therefore travel less and closer to home,” he said.

Myles said people still travelled for shopping excursions and to visit family members.

He said it was important for cities to benefit by transforming these stays from day trips into overnight stays.

“Cities still stand to benefit from these trips. If people travel to stay with families, they could decide to visit Addo or go on other excursions. They can still spend elsewhere in the city,” Myles said.

“My concern is that the Eastern Cape is not increasing its share of the market. About 10 years ago we were the fifth most visited province.

“Now findings indicate that we are consistently at number eight.

“Only the Northern Cape is worse than us.”