The Tourism Business Council of South Africa (TBCSA) has released the fourth quarter results of its Tourism Business Index (TBI), revealing a positive industry performance.
An overall index of 112.4 was recorded by the industry, which is slightly lower than last quarter but still above normal trading performance levels. This quarter’s business performance is linked to several factors, including a weak exchange rate, strong overseas leisure demand, as well as improved marketing and media coverage.
TBI comprises two sub-indices, the first of which is accommodation including guest houses, and hotels. The second consists of other tourism businesses such as the tourism transport sector, travel agents, retail outlets, conference venues, attractions and forex traders.
The accommodation sector recorded its second highest performance since 2010. Other tourism businesses experienced slightly weaker performances – in particular travel agents recorded significantly worse than normal performance, although operators remain optimistic about next quarter’s business.
The index survey also included questions on the expected impact of the coming elections, to which 56,3% of respondents said the elections should not affect their business. However, 37% did expect the election to have a negative impact on their operations as the extra mid-week public holiday would interfere with business travel and people would avoid travel in general in order to vote at their own stations.
-Debbie Badham
