Bay’s December visitor occupancy slightly up
More than half a million people visited Nelson Mandela Bay in December, generating over R500m and reinforcing the importance of tourism as a source of revenue for the metro.
While the occupancy and economic performance figures are not as good as in 2019, preCovid, they are better than 2022, according to a municipal report.
Economic development, agriculture and tourism political head Shuling Lindoor said she was excited about the city’s future in tourism terms.
“December recorded an overall occupancy rate of 64.06%, showing a slight increase from December 2022, which had an occupancy rate of 63.52%.
“This indicates a positive trend in the tourism industry over the one year.
“In comparison to December 2019, which had an occupancy rate of 69.06%, December 2023 still falls short by about five percentage points.”
This suggests the tourism sector had not fully recovered to pre-Covid levels by the end of last year.
“However, we are still scheduled to receive several cruise liners this season, and if we can build on that industry and improve on aspects of our tourism package, we can start to make strides.”
The report was compiled by the tourism team of the department of economic development, tourism and agriculture based on data from the accommodation sector.
Lindoor said more could be done with the receiving of each cruise liner.
“We need to involve our communities and our children in welcoming them, and make it a distinctly Nelson Mandela Bay experience for these visitors.
“We need to improve our hospitality package so tourists can visit, for instance, the private Nyosi Wildlife Reserve in Greenbushes, and reserves and resorts in the Bay which belong to the metro and province.
“We need more tour guides, so we must encourage applications in this regard, and we need a programme to put all these different activities together.”
Lindoor said her mayoral legacy project, devised in response to a call from mayor Gary van Niekerk, could support this programme.
“Now all you see driving
from Kariega to Gqeberha is rubbish dumps everywhere.
“I plan to bring expanded public works programme members to beautify and transform these ugly sites into ones we can be proud of.
“To highlight our pride in the present and the past, we will name them after our fallen heroes.
“Different metro departments will need to work together to ensure, for instance, signage is installed and the necessary budget is made available.”
The report says 2023 as a whole showed a positive trend.
“While December 2023 shows improvement compared with the previous two years, it has not yet reached the levels observed in December 2019, indicating that the tourism industry is still working towards a complete recovery.
“However, it is noteworthy that the occupancy rates for December 2023 are closer to pre-Covid levels, compared with the earlier months of 2023, suggesting a progressive rebound throughout the year.”
The report said the Bay’s 432 accommodation facilities, from hotels to budget accommodation, offering 13,863 beds, had achieved an overall occupancy of 64.06% through 2023, and an average stay of 5.1 days.
“In comparison to the previous year, there was an increase of 2,304 beds sold last month (0.54%) and ... the average length of stay increased by 0.7 days.” It said in December, the Bay had a total of 275,289 bednights the key tourism industry metric referring to the use of one bed by a guest for one night at formal accommodation facilities.
Foreign visitor bednights were 37,905 and domestic visitor bednights were 237,385.
The visiting friends and relatives category totalled 280,428 bednights, with foreign visiting bednights at 2,143 and domestic bednights at 278,284.
“The total number of bednights is therefore estimated to be 555,717 for December.
“Using this figure and the average stay of visitors, one can say there were about 108,964 overnight visitors.”
The report noted spending figures associated with these bednights were significant indicators of the economic effect of tourism in the Bay.
“Foreign spend is R41,119,208.98 and domestic spend R422,633,126.15, with a total overnight visitor spend of R463,752,335.13.”
This data furthermore did not include day visitor spend.
“Based on previous data collected, day visitor spend in Nelson Mandela Bay contributed about 12.2% to the overall visitor spend in the destination per annum.
“Taking day visitor spend into consideration, one can estimate the total economic contribution for visitors to the metro in December to be about R520m.”
The report said 28 cruise liners, carrying a total of 37,560 passengers and 17,060 crew, had already docked in the Port of Port Elizabeth during December, or would still arrive up until mid-May, with an expected estimated contribution of R59m.
This was slightly down from the year before.
Discover Mandela Bay project manager Shaun van Eck said the slight occupancy improvement over the previous year was due to the national schools’ water polo tournament in the first half of December.
“That boosted our occupancy figures, and the second half of December was down compared with last year.
“But we can learn from this by going all out to attract at least one of these big sporting events for early in December each year, when the business and events tourism has dried up and the holidaymakers have not yet started arriving.”
PE Metro Bed & Breakfast Association chair Shena Wilmot said security needed to be improved.
“Once our festive season got going there was a scramble and security ended up being OK.
“But before the start of the season, we had several unpleasant incidents in which tourists, joggers and cyclists were targeted, and news of these incidents of course got out,” she said.
Wilmot said a programme and activities package would also do wonders.
“We also need more fun holiday activities for families.”