As the number of international visitors to South Africa grows‚ hotel room revenue is also expected to burgeon.

This is according to PwC’s latest report on Africa’s hotel sector‚ which found that overall hotel room revenue in South Africa rose 4.6% to R16.6-billion in 2017 and will grow to R21.8-billion by 2022. Five-star hotels had the highest occupancy rates in the market in 2017‚ at 79.5%.

“Most of the hotel openings schedules for the coming years will be four-star hotels. Scheduled openings for 2019-21 include the Radisson Blu Oceans Umhlanga in Durban‚ the Marriott Johannesburg Melrose Arch‚ the Marriott Executive Apartments in Johannesburg‚ two Hilton Garden Inns – one in Durban and another in Mpumalanga – each of these is a four-star hotel.

“We expect the overall number of available rooms to increase from 62,000 in 2017 to 64,900 in 2022.”

Three-star hotels accounted for 31% of total hotel room revenue in 2017.

“The growth in hotel rooms in South Africa‚ remains similar to that forecast in our 2017 Hotels Outlook‚ with an additional 2,900 rooms to be added over the next five years‚” said PwC’s Pietro Calicchio‚ hospitality industry expert.

The report found that international visitor numbers to South Africa continued to grow with a 2.4% increase overall.

The UK is still the largest source of visitors to South Africa at 447,901 in 2017.

Of African visitors‚ the largest number came from Zimbabwe at two million‚ followed by Lesotho at 1.8 million and Mozambique at 1.3 million.

Source: Times Live