The information below was extracted from available data as at 13 November 2012, writes Martin Jansen van Vuuren.
ARRIVALS
The latest available data from Statistics South Africa is for
January to July 2012:
| Current period | Change over same period last year | |
| UK | 247 046 | 4.7% |
| Germany | 133 757 | 12.4% |
| USA | 190 355 | 15.2% |
| India | 62 011 | 17.9% |
| China | 72 348 | 65.6% |
| Overseas Arrivals (excl same day visitors) | 1 370 133 | 16.4% |
| African Arrivals | 3 824 534 | 8.5% |
| Total Foreign Arrivals | 5 209 618 | 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 September 2012:
| Current period | Average Room Occupancy (ARO) | Average Room Rate (ARR) | Revenue Per Available Room (RevPAR) |
| All Hotels in SA | 58.3% | R 871.19 | R 507.98 |
| All 5-star hotels in SA | 56.1% | R 1 545.81 | R 867.81 |
| All 4-star hotels in SA | 58.2% | R 838.85 | R 488.33 |
| All 3-star hotels in SA | 58.4% | R 706.37 | R 412.86 |
| Change over same period last year | |||
| All Hotels in SA | 7.4% | 3.8% | 11.4% |
| All 5-star hotels in SA | 11.7% | 2.0% | 14.0% |
| All 4-star hotels in SA | 8.0% | 3.5% | 11.8% |
| All 3-star hotels in SA | 5.3% | 4.4% | 9.9% |
ACSA DATA
The latest available data from ACSA is for January to October 2012:
| Change over same period last year | Passengers arriving on International Flights |
Passengers arriving on Regional Flights |
Passengers arriving on Domestic Flights |
| OR Tambo International | 1.9% | -0.9% | -2.4% |
| Cape Town International | 5.7% | 18.3% | 1.7% |
| King Shaka International | 16.0% | N/A | -5.1% |
WHAT THIS MEANS FOR MY BUSINESS
The growth in arrivals and hotel performance are in contrast to the decline in passengers arriving on domestic flights at OR Tambo and King Shaka International Airports. Given that 1Time Airline ceased operations on 2 November, it can be expected that arrivals on domestic flights would decline for the last two months of the year.
Some passengers would move to other airlines and still fly, but the passengers that depended on discretionary spend to fly on 1Time might cancel their trip altogether.
For more information contact Martin at Grant Thornton on +27 (0)21 417 8838 or visit: http://www.gt.co.za.
