Cape Town - While the South African economy is reeling after the rand dropped to record lows this month, tourists are seizing the moment and travelling to Cape Town with many hotels, backpackers and B&Bs reporting they are fully booked.
The attraction to South Africa and particularly Cape Town has Federated Hospitality Association of South Africa (Fedhasa) predicting a great 2016 for tourism.
Fedhasa Cape’s chairperson and The Westin hotel general manager, Rob Kucera, said Cape Town had seen a combination of international and local tourists visiting the city: “There is a balance of families and couples coming into Cape Town.
“At the moment there are lots of British tourists in the city for the cricket Test series.”
He said at The Westin they had been fully booked for the past few weeks and would be until the first week of next month.
“I think Cape Town is sitting on a healthy situation going forward and I think 2016 will be a good year.
“People will go back and we will see many coming back to do business here and hold conferences.”
He said aside from its beauty, tourists come to Cape Town because they could get value for their money.
Mandela Rhodes Place Hotel and Spa general manager Debbie Sykes said their usually busy October month had been a lot quieter but had picked up after Christmas.
“Normally October is the first busy month of the summer season and it was a lot quieter than we expected, November was a good month.
“Now we are fully booked until about January 12.”
She added that the Mandela Rhodes usually saw families staying in their large apartments but, because of the visa regulations, fewer families had been staying with them.
“We are all feeling the pinch of the visa regulations and unabridged birth certificates for the kids. With the visas a lot of the Asian guests were affected.
“Normally they would have travelled in but there was a little business from them.”
She said they had not seen the impact of the financial situation, but believes there would be some change from next year.
“We haven’t seen a boost in international bookings from that.
“I think in the beginning of next year travellers might be influenced by it.
“Flights are still expensive to get here but once they get here it is really cheap.”
The general manager at Long Street Backpackers, Marius Barnard, said they had had a busy December and after Christmas were fully booked: “If you want a place to stay in Long Street now you won’t find one.
“I can’t speak for the other backpackers but I am almost certain they are all fully booked.”
Barnard added that those guests booked into the establishment now will most likely be there for New Year’s Eve and stay until early January.
He said it was “financially viable” for tourists to be in the country at the moment.
Cape Argus