Plenty more rooms at the inns
Hotel sector: Check-in time for investors?
SA’s hotel sector has had a bumper 12 months on the back of a recovery in foreign tourism. But how long will the upturn last this time around, asks Joan Muller
Hotel occupancies in some areas are close to levels last seen during the halcyon days of the 2010 soccer World Cup, no doubt spurred by the 13% year-on-year uptick in international tourists who visited SA’s shores in the first quarter (Stats SA figures). Cape Town’s hospitality sector had a buoyant summer season, with occupancies across all graded hotels averaging 71% in the first quarter, figures from industry research group STR Global show. Cape Town’s three-star market has been the top performing subsector, achieving a record 81.4% average occupancy in the first quarter. Revenue per available room (RevPAR), a key performance metric used to gauge the health of the hotel industry, was up 17.9% in Cape Town in the first quarter, placing the Mother City as one of the top performers globally in terms of revenue growth. Hotel industry players say last year’s recovery in occupancies and RevPAR followed a dismal 2015, which had a sharp drop-off in foreign tourism due to government introd...
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