Nearly 110,000 overseas visitors, with their much-needed dollars, euros and pounds, arrived in the country in March, data released last week by Stats SA shows.
That’s up a colossal 520% on the 17,548 international travellers to SA in March 2021, and the first time since Covid hit that monthly arrivals breached the 100,000 mark.
From April 2020 to December 2021 the number of international tourists (excluding those from the rest of Africa) had mostly languished well below 50,000 a month. That cost SA’s economy billions in lost tourism spend.
Granted, March’s tally of 108,974 is still 58% below the monthly pre-Covid peak of about 260,000 arrivals in early 2020. But it’s nevertheless an encouraging move in the right direction.
The 267,587 overseas tourists who arrived in SA between January and March is up about 540% year on year and is 45% ahead of the fourth quarter’s 184,670. Source markets that showed the biggest year-on-year jumps in the first quarter — in excess of 1,000% — are Denmark, Ireland, the UK and Australia.
Latest hotel occupancy and revenue figures also suggest there’s been a noticeable rebound in SA’s tourism industry.
In April, overall occupancies across SA’s graded hotels had recovered to 50.1% — up from 30.4% a year earlier, but still down from 2019’s 61%, according to global hospitality analytics company STR.
Room rates (or revenue per available room) more than doubled over the same period — from R321.26 to R637.90 (R816.30 in 2019).
The recovery in the hotel sector’s fortunes has been particularly pronounced in Cape Town, where occupancies reached 55.3% in April, up from 27.9% a year earlier. Room revenue increased nearly threefold over the same period — from an average R313.51 to R899.91, STR figures show.
Latest tourism data from Wesgro, the Western Cape and Cape Town’s official tourism, trade and investment promotion agency, confirms there’s been a solid recovery in the region’s tourism sector in recent months.
In April, foreign passengers arriving and departing at Cape Town International Airport via 16 international carriers had recovered to 76% of pre-Covid levels (April 2019).
International visitor numbers for March have breached the 100,000 mark for the first time since Covid hit SA’s shores
— What it means:
That compares with an average passenger recovery rate of 33% in the fourth quarter of last year, and 49% in the first quarter of this year. Domestic air passengers clocked up an equally strong recovery rate of 75% in April (against April 2019).
The number of overseas visitors to Cape Town is likely to continue to grow over the next few months as more international carriers resume or increase flights to the Mother City.
Wesgro CEO Wrenelle Stander says flights to Cape Town International Airport from 23 international destinations were re-established last year. She expects air passenger capacity to increase further this year, with Air Belgium planning to operate two additional flights a week to Cape Town from September — one direct from Brussels and one via Joburg.
US carrier United Airlines also plans to resume direct flights between New York and Cape Town in June, while Delta Air Lines is looking to introduce direct flights between Atlanta and Cape Town in November.
There’s more good news for Cape Town’s tourism sector: more than 100 cruise ship visits are expected at the V&A Waterfront over the 2022/2023 summer season.
Since the SA cruise sector reopened in October, Cape Town’s port has received only 16 cruise ships.
The V&A Waterfront is expecting a bumper season, with 104 cruise ship visits already confirmed between October and March
V&A CEO David Green says the waterfront is looking forward to a bumper season, with 104 cruise ship visits already confirmed between October and March.
That will inject millions into the Western Cape economy, given that the 2022/2023 cruise bookings are expected to carry about 195,000 visitors. For the pre-Covid year to March 2020, the passengers and crew from cruise liners docked at the V&A terminal generated an estimated R854m in tourist spend for Cape Town’s economy.
Green says there’s no doubt the city is already benefiting from a rebound in international tourists. The V&A has clocked up just more than 8-million visitors in the first five months of 2022, up 35% year on year and only 24% below pre-Covid levels (January-May 2019).
The V&A has traditionally been one of SA’s most-visited tourist destinations, with about 26-million visitors a year flocking to the mixed-use precinct — nearly 30% of them internationals.
Green says most daily visitors to the V&A are still domestic tourists. However, there’s been a “better-than-anticipated” recovery in hotel occupancies at the V&A precinct, which he says receives primarily international tourists.
He is optimistic that the rebound in overseas visitors to Cape Town in general, and the V&A in particular, will continue to gain momentum over the next few months, aided by events like the 2022 Rugby World Cup Sevens tournament, due to be held in September.
One factor that could dampen the recovery is rapidly rising fuel costs on the back of oil sanctions against Russia, after its invasion of Ukraine. In a webinar on the outlook for global tourism hosted by The Economist Intelligence Unit last week, analyst Ana Nicholls said jet fuel prices, which typically account for 20%-30% of total airline costs, are already up 80% year on year. That is putting upward pressure on flight ticket prices and may prompt some international tourists to put travel plans on hold.
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