Deloitte confirmed that revPAR, the hotel industry's key performance indicator, was up close to 6 percent during the month of June across South Africa as hoteliers benefited from an increase in tourism due to the FIFA Confederations Cup and the Lions rugby tour.

Moray Wilson, Tourism, Hospitality & Leisure leader for Deloitte Southern Africa, commenting on the results said: "There is no doubt that the South African tourism industry continues to be challenged by the global economic downturn and some tourists are being deterred by the strong Rand against source market currencies. Data compiled by STR Global shows that revPAR is down 7.2 percent year-to-June 2009 and if this trend continues, 2009 could be the first year in 10 years that revPAR has contracted.

"The sporting events in June gave the hotel industry a welcome break from the declines and also provided South Africa with a practice run before the 2010 FIFA World Cup. The country is no stranger to hosting sporting events but the World Cup will certainly be the biggest we have held in recent years. During the event, the country is aiming to welcome approximately 450,000 visitors and will certainly set up the framework for a very prosperous 2010 for the tourism industry."

Major cities such as Cape Town and Johannesburg benefited the most from the recent football and rugby events. RevPAR in Cape Town jumped 14.2 percent breaking five consecutive months of revPAR decline, despite only hosting two rugby matches. The jump was mostly due to a 10.6 percent increase in average room rates to ZAR 880 but occupancy also went up by 3.3 percent to 51.1 percent ending a 12-month cycle of occupancy decline.

Johannesburg also benefited from hosting one rugby and five football matches in June with revPAR up 9.9 percent to ZAR 832–the strongest revPAR this year and ended a six month run of declines. A 20.6 percent jump in average room rates was solely responsible for this increase while occupancy continued to decline 8.9 percent.

On the flip side, despite hosting matches, Durban, Port Elizabeth and Pretoria did not fare as well and all experienced revPAR declines (using customized samples).

Dan Jones, Partner in the Sports Business Group at Deloitte, added: "The impact of the Lions Tour and the Confederations Cup reinforces the economic benefits from the hosting of major sporting events Deloitte has identified in its work on the Rugby World Cup, Ryder Cup, and Volvo Ocean Race among others."

South African hotel performance



The information contained in this press release is correct at the time of going to press. For more information, please visit www.deloitte.co.uk.